Education is Not an Island

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the process of conception and implementation of the gallery educational programmes accompanying the exhibition of Eva Kotátková, which was presented in CAPC – Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux and at the National Gallery Prague.

In her work, Eva Kotátková combines sculptures, objects, collages, costumes and texts into vast, playful, poetic and colourful installations, to suggest how deeply our personal lives are shaped by our social environment. This approach is materialised by complex pieces of machinery that constrain the body whilst holding possibilities for its transformation. Taking its cue from theatrical devices, a critique of psychiatric ethos, and certain forms of experimental education, Kotátková work develops in tight connection with narratives – a narration in fragments, scattered across the exhibition, that make up the image of the world. My Body is not an Island expands and elaborates upon issues that have been present in the artist’s work for many years. This project, specially conceived to be shown in the nave at the CAPC, is shaped like a gigantic body, half-fish, half-human; it both contains and mediates for a myriad of stories, whose entrancing litany will echo throughout the whole exhibition space.

The educational concept is created in collaboration between the artist, curators, educators, teachers and students. This paper explores the challenges posed to the institution by collaborating with contemporary artists who themselves perceive and define their exhibitions as inclusive and educational.

Through the activation of the spectator’s empathy and imagination, Eva Kotátková offers a space for understanding and tolerance. The main focus of interest lies in the communications didactic transformation of narratives from art to learning. We were concerned with what themes the exhibition can offer to schools and which pedagogical practices of gallery education would suit this purpose.