Hay, Straw, Dump

Hay, Straw, Dump

Text brochure for the exhibition in PDF download here:

The group exhibition project Hay, Straw, Dump was prepared by the Jindřich Chalupecký Society for the spaces of the Václav Špála Gallery. The exhibition is a look back at Zorka Ságlová’s iconic installation for the exhibition Somewhere Something (also featuring Jan Ságl, Běla Kolářová, and Jiří Kolář), which was presented at the Václav Špála Gallery in 1969 under the dramaturgical direction of Jindřich Chalupecký. In the exhibition, Ságlová brought a large amount of drying hay, alfalfa, and straw into the gallery, which she and her friends regularly raked and turned, encouraging the audience to do the same. The works of the twenty local and international artists selected for the exhibition Hay, Straw, Dump reflect on both the consequences of the period of agricultural collectivisation and current ecofeminist perspectives. They focus on interspecies solidarity, respectful and sustainable relationships, and coexistence, depicting situations in which nature, contaminated by human activity, takes the reins and re-establishes a balance in which humans may or may not participate.

The exhibition was organized within the international project Islands of Kinship: A Collective  Manual for Sustainable and Inclusive  Art Institutions, co-funded by the Czech Ministry of Culture, the City of Prague, and the European Union.