An ongoing project by visual artist Barbora Švehláková focuses on the forgotten connections between cultural, industrial and political relations which existed between Czechoslovakia and Cambodia since the mid-1950s, and their corresponding project of decolonization. This relations initiated under the auspices of neutralist policy and the building of "buddhist socialism" were initiated by the former King Norodom Sihanuk, the result of which was an agreement on mutual cooperation between the two countries, including the construction of a number of enterprises and also, for example, the import of Czechoslovak weapons to Cambodia. The austere form of feudal socialism and mutual friendship later resulted in the current Cambodian king Norodom Sihamoni being sent to study in Czechoslovakia. His stay there, his vacation in Wallachia, opens personal memories buried long ago. The basic research idea of this project is the question to what extent our present is determined by our own (already displaced) history and how personal ties can connect different lived reality and deconstruction of the self.

About Artists:

Barbora Švehláková (1988) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. During her studies she took part in a number of study exchanges, for example at the T.E.I. in Athens, she also studied in the studios of Ruth Noack (AVU, Prague) or Marwa Arsanios and Tony Chakar (Salzburg, AUT). She works at Artyčok TV, where among other matters she has produced a critical serial on the theme of university art education or attendance fetishism in cooperation with Janek Rous and Vjera Borozan (https://artycok.tv/cs/post/edu-01-ekonomika-vzdelavani). During the period of 2019-2021 she was editor of the magazine Flash Art. She writes for a whole range of Czech and foreign journals (Flash Art, A2 Magazine, Artalk, etc.). Švehláková has exhibited her work primarily on the Czech independent gallery scene, but also abroad, for example, at exhibitions at the Limited Access film festival in Teheran (Iran, 2019), at the Czech Center in New York (USA, 2015), at the PAF festival in Olomouc (Other Visions section, 2016), the National Gallery Prague (2017), etc.