Marta Popivoda, “What Lies Above Us in The Shadows Like a Black Cloud”, (2024), 2 channel 4k video, stereo sound, 23 min loop, still.
Marta Popivoda
The exhibition showcases an audiovisual work by contemporary Serbian artist Marta Popivoda, featuring Jaroslava Skleničková (1927–2024), the last living Lidice Woman, alongside the voices of the feminist collective Kolektiv Sdruženy.
They recite a poem, both in Czech and English, written by the antifascist resistance fighter Anna Kvapilová (1905–1992), while imprisoned in Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, where she was kept prisoner alongside Jaroslava and the other Lidice Women.
Poem: Anna Kvápilová, Ach vidět zase… (Krajíček chleba / A Thin Slice of Bread, 1947, Brno)
During an interview with Marta, Jaroslava recites the poem from memory, with some slight modifications, in response to a question about her connection to the landscape of Lidice.
What Lies Above Us in The Shadows Like a Black Cloud, 2024, 4K colour and B&W video, stereo sound, 23 minutes in loop. Editing: Jelena Maksimović / cinematography: Staša Bukumirović / sound design: Vladimir Živković / research assistant: Eva Slabá / camera assistant: Michaela Sidorová / translation: Ashley Davis / archival footage: ZF 0369 LIDICE, source: Národní filmový archiv, Prague / thanks: Katalin Erdődi, Kristina Tělupilová, Vojtěch Kyncl, Bohumil Melichar, Michal Simunek, Miloslav Vorlíček, Rike Frank, Christine A. Maier, İz Öztat, Matěj Strnad, Clarissa Thieme, Nela Pietrová / courtesy of the artist
Marta Popivoda's piece was commissioned by the Biennale Matter of Art Prague 2024, curated by Aleksei Borisionok and Katalin Erdődi, and organised by tranzit.cz
