Markéta Magidová: That’s Not a Fairy, that’s a Mum open-air 10. 11. 2021 – 4. 3. 2022

The exhibition by Markéta Magidová in Galerie Vltavská is a direct response to the sculpture made by Olga Hudečková and Miroslav Hudeček, who designed the fountain “Faun a Vltava” in the 1980s, as part of the architecture of the Vltavská underground station. They depicted both characters in their mythological lightness, celebrating the stream of life. However, the Faun is freer than Vltava, sitting on the top with his flute, while Vltava holds the river rocks and lets the water wash over her, the water that brings the fountain to life. In her current work, Markéta Magidová attempts at shaking the trees of mythological archetypes and recent social and gender stereotypes, and present both Faun and Vltava in new constellations. In her large-scale digital images, placed next to the original sculpture, she replaces, for example, Faun’s flute with a baby milk bottle, and puts a baby into his arms so Vltava/mum can rest for a while and do whatever she might like – have fun, take a good night’s sleep, work, visit a spa resort etc. Other images of the author present Vltava and Faun in various family constellations, with sick or crying children, in joys and worries that shatter their archetypal unchanging roles and open the uneasy questions about the composition of a family, the roles of its members, and possible alternatives to traditional, often restrictive standards; these questions have gradually become more and more important as social and political issues.

One of Magidová’s images shows Vltava lying under a duvet made of waterlilies, looking like rootless existence, a bit like Ophelia just drowned. At this point, Vltava as the river and its personification as a woman mingle at its best. Women, or female principle in general, are often given qualities attributed to water: good memory, sensibility, flexibility, sensuality, or persisting strength. In the time when it’s (once more) necessary to fight for women’s rights, the alliance between water and female qualities is more than appropriate. Once the archetypes become real stories and natural elements are given the equal voice in the human community, we may approach them, empathize with them, and possibly look for ways towards a sustainable and considerable future.