Anna Zemánková presented in the exhibition BIO28: Double Agent in Ljubljana
Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO)
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Design Biennial (BIO28), the gallery has loaned three works by Anna Zemánková for the exhibition Double Agent, which will take place at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from November 21, 2024, to April 6, 2025.
Organized by the MAO and the Centre for Creativity (CzK), the curatorial concept of this project was developed by Professor and Curator Alexandra Midal in collaboration with Emma Pflieger, Assistant Curator.
Political, bold, vibrant, and provocative, Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? examines the figure of floriography, a code hidden within flowers to transmit secret information. The core of this transdisciplinary and multifaceted exhibition scrutinizes the pivotal role of floriography used by women to portray their identities. In that sense, flowers pave the way for antagonistic and alternative interpretations of both the meanings and the context in which they are decrypted.
The exhibition draws on critical theory to define self-identification as an aesthetic and political act that resonates with vanquished, marginalized, forgotten, or invisible minorities. Given that flowers represent both the commodification of women into an idealized beauty paradigm and serve as a feminist, anti-colonial, gender, and queer cryptology, the title Double Agent: Do You Speak Flower? reflects this dual perspective. The Biennial displays an ongoing investigation that questions the role of the exhibition in providing answers, and instead wishes to open a series of conversations with designers, artists and the public.
It was in the early 1960s that this humble Moravian woman began producing a body of work for which her background had not prepared her, responding strikingly to impulses from deep within. Thus, at a time when the demons of the night still contended with the seminal hues of dawn, she would, in her mind, pick strange flowers and bring them to life on paper. Anna Zemánková is now a well-established figure in Art Brut, to the point that she was honored at the Venice Biennale in 2013, before a significant collection of her works was acquired by the Centre Pompidou, followed by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2020. In 2024, her works will be presented at the Venice Biennale for the second time, under the curatorship of Adriano Pedrosa.