Barbora Klímová: Slavné brněnské vily II. – Revisited

Barbora Klímová started her research on family housing in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of the project Slavné brněnské vily II. (Renowned Brno Villas II., Galerie G99, Brno, 2007). In 2008–2011 she made a unique research between the builders of family houses and their clients who were active in Brno in the era of normalisation. Those who tried to build a family house for themselves in the socialism period had to face obstacles that may seem beyond the comprehension of today’s man, starting with buying the plot, gathering the material or even the workmen who would build the house itself. The future real estate owners would spend all their free time on the building site and take part in the construction by their own hands together with their whole families. Consequently, Klímová published a book My jsme tím projektem žili! Stavba rodinného domu v období normalizace (We Lived for that Project! Building a Family House in the Normalisation Era, 2011).

The artist will reflect on her research almost ten years afterwards. She will (beside other topics) consider if there has been a change in the way how the relics of that time have been perceived by the Czech society. She will contemplate upon the question whether this ambiguous history should be preserved and re-told for future generations.

Barbora Klímová (1977) studied the Faculty of Fine Arts BUT in Brno (1998-2004). She took part in the postgraduate study programme at HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp (2004–2006) and she got her doctor degree at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava. Her projects explore various aspects of cultural history limited on a certain location. She has been interested for a long time in the 1970s and 1980s in Czechoslovakia. She received the Jindřich Chalupecký Award in 2006. She has been leading the Environment Studio at the Faculty of Fine Arts BUT in Brno since 2011.

Barbora Klímová’s project presentation is one of the VI PER Gallery’s events related to the exhibition Šumperák.

Photo: Tomáš Pospěch