Ritual for the hidden - British Czech and Slovak Association
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Ritual for the hidden Tereza Bušková is a an artist interested in Czech and Slovak ritual. Her work Hidden Mothers is an art-event that uses that tradition to highlight the experience of motherhood. It has been delayed until next year and she talked to the Review about Covid, her plans for the performance and her work. You had a very public artwork – entitled could hold the infant and it would remain village of Moravia in the Czech Republic to Hidden Mothers – planned for this year, can calm throughout. In contemporary society, film my work, Spring Equinox. It was sup- you tell us what the work was and when it certain aspects of motherhood remain hidden ported and exhibited at The Zabludowicz may happen now? and numerous mothers face disadvantage at Collection, a major London Art Foundation. I have been working on work. This project celebrates the values of Together with my performers, including my @hidden_mothers_project for almost two motherhood and draws attention to the social mum who has been assisting me, we trav- years now… this baby has been a slow bake benefits of families, togetherness and elled to Ratíškovice, where to this day the due to unexpected turns with its installation traditions. local women wear their folk costumes to location and Covid. However, I am deter- This cottage, which is co-designed by their Sunday church service. I was planning mined to bring Hidden Mothers to life in Hidden Mothers and an architect and a direc- to quietly observe their Easter rituals but summer 2021. tor of Studio Polpo – Mark Parsons – will be when the mayor of this village found out The project Hidden Mothers consists of an placed over an existing building, Chats about an artist filming, he arranged the entire exhibition, performances and an art installa- Palace, which is the Arts Centre in Hackney, folk dance group to perform for my film. It tion in a public space. It draws from Czech London. The London Festival of was going very differently to how I envi- and Slovak folk traditions and connects these Architecture would like to include this art sioned it, but I just went with it and filmed with the present-day architecture and up-to- installation in their 2021 festival. I remain what I found interesting. This experience date social topics – bringing women together feeling confident, excited and hopeful. What gave me more confidence and a hunger to be through universal themes of motherhood, would have been a celebratory procession in present at other customs and rituals, like traditions and togetherness. Hidden Mothers 2020 would have become more like a death when I made Masopust, which was inspired is a Central and Eastern European-themed march which risked amplifying the infection. by a unique ritual called “the Rose ritual” public art project, focusing on the empower- Like so many arts institutions Chats Palace performed in a village called Doudleby in ment of migrant and refugee mothers and is existentially threatened by the pandemic, the South of Bohemia. women facing isolation and vulnerability in leaving the final location in flux. Instead I Filming these rituals was always more to the UK today. I am working with local com- had to re-evaluate and get online, often con- me than just footage that I needed to make munities in Birmingham and London to cre- necting with families through creative art for my video… they were very special ate a processional performance. The perfor- workshops, which inspired a new limb of the because we were taken among the villagers. mance will be infused with Central and project called ‘unstitched mothers’ It was a special experience for us all. The Eastern European symbolism and culminate next project was Baked Woman of Doubice in the installation of a Slovak-inspired cot- A lot of your recent work is described as 2012 which was quite different as I invented tage facade, as a statement of togetherness community or public artwork. When and why a baking ritual together with the residents, and of being home. did you begin to focus on these sorts of pub- all women. Because the village Doubice, The title of the project is inspired by the lic and community works of art? which lies in the North of the Czech genre of Victorian photography “hidden My work took on a larger scale when I Republic was a place where I spend my ado- mothers”. While taking a baby’s portrait the moved my project from an enclosed intimate lescent years, I felt confident making the mother was hidden under a piece of canvas studio space into an open space. I guess it work there. The largest project, which was so as not to be seen. At the same time, she began in 2009 when I traveled to the oldest very much a public community-based project December/January 2020/21
Previous page: procession from Clipping the Church,
Erdington High Street, Birmingham, 2016.
Photo by Gwynne-Gybbons Photographers.
This page: Collage for Hidden Mothers by Mark Parsons and
below, Tereza Bušková, photographed by Dora Martínková.
happened here in Birmingham in building communities and supporting each
Erdington, 2016. other. It's been very dark for all of us, so I
I revived and re-interpreted an almost for- feel that we need art more than ever.
gotten English christianised pagan custom – Especially when our community is involved
Clipping the Church – which is linked to and the purpose is significant and important
Mothering Sunday and consists of people – a celebration and acknowledgment of
clasping their hands all around their local mothers out there, especially those who have
church. Prior to this clipping ritual several been more hidden during the lockdown.
workshops around Birmingham took place
during which people and children made salt Is there solidarity or division to be found in this
dough decorations, which were placed on the communal suffering? Will the story of the year
facade of St Barnabas’ Church in Erdington inform or influence the nature of your work,
High Street. On the day of the performance, quite apart from the obvious impossibility of
there were over 200 people taking part and arranging public art events?
leading a procession through Erdington High My work is continuously evolving, shaping
Street. I involved passers-by too. The local and changing. I felt disappointed when my
police were so supportive of my work that project didn't happen a year ago due to
they made sure that all traffic stopped for the changes for my cottage installation and I was
duration of the procession. There was a even more disheartened when it was stopped
strong presence of energy and unity on that again due to Covid. However, I do believe
day. This took place only two weeks before that things happen for a reason and that they
the Brexit referendum, so seeing people of will happen when it's the right time for them.
all religions and political views holding Actually, I feel that my project grew even
hands together restored hope in me. stronger and definitely more meaningful –
there are most likely mothers who are even
Now we have been living under restrictions at more hidden from our society and more vul-
one level or another for most of the year. Is nerable.
there damage done to our sense of com-
munity in that situation? Public art events can serve as a unifying
I think it made our community stronger. moment or experience for those attending. Is
Many people were and are in great need of your intent to bring about that sort of feeling
help and the amount of positive response in a community?
that I am witnessing is amazing. People say We need a community. We need to feel that
that British people are keeping their heads we belong. My neighbours in our communi-
down and keeping to themselves, but I don't ty became an integral part of my life as my
think that's true. I think Brits are great at family is split between the UK, Czech
December/January 2020/21
Republic, Ireland and Norway. They have offers all of us in society the opportunity
become my extended family and we mat- to re-explore the value of ceremonial cele-
ter to each other. In the past, people brations without the shackles of certain
would collectively perform rituals, make orthodoxies.
processions like clasping their hands
around their villages to bring good luck Your own Czech story has a presence in
and prosperity… or to secure a good har- your work. Can you give us a clue as to
vest. Just because we live in the 21st cen- how you view costume in your work?
tury or in the city doesn’t mean together- When I was at the Royal College of Art, I
ness isn't important to our lives. went to a library where a book on tradi-
tional Czechoslovakian folk costumes fell
into my hands. It said that traditional folk
costume didn't just serve an aesthetic
How does artistic endeavour and the artist’s
function, but also a healing, magical and
voice reach us in these circumstances?
I have been taking part in artist online
residencies where the online platform is a erotic function. Folk costume was also
great way of reaching a wider audience. It defining the status of who was wearing it,
really gave me focus and strength to keep every embroidery or a colour had its sig-
going and sharing my project with others. nificance and symbolism. I view the cos-
Because Hidden Mothers is not taking tume as a mask… the idea of becoming
place until summer 2021 I wanted to do somebody else… there is so much freedom
something meaningful with my local com- there.
munity – a fun and creative extra project I was always drawn to the cinema and
called Unstitched Mothers which would theatre. Growing up in an artistic and
enable women/mothers to celebrate the creative family allowed me to be sur-
comfort of their home. It is an embroidery rounded by visual images. My family tree
project together with Birmingham-based had poets, printmakers, architects and
needlepoint maker and community well-known wood carvers, both my twin
builder Tina Francis, who together with brother and my dad are successful graph-
me will design embroidery kits which will ic designers. I guess that’s why I don’t
be handed out to mothers from the just replicate what has been before, I
Central and Eastern European communi- experiment with so many different media
ties here in Birmingham. Mothers will be and processes. I see myself as a visual
invited to embody the living Slavic god- artist. My background is printmaking and
dess Mokosh by making an embroidery I enjoy adding layers, colours over each
for themselves as well as a piece which other when working with video, film, per-
will be later added to the main Hidden formance… I use the same process. In
Mothers costumes. fact, the process is often more important
than what's there at the end.
Someone once described it, while watch-
ing my live performance as a visual poet-
You are interested in tradition and ritual in
your work. Can we create new ritual that
will become tradition or is that only a possi- ry. I work with professional dancers and
bility for those with power? performers such as Zoe Simon who I see
I think we all have the power to make as my muse, but I also involve the general
things and to make an impact. Since my public, friends and family. I have a clear
Clipping the Church project, people asked vision, but not all the necessary skills,
me if I can make this their annual ritual. that's why I work with others to bring my
Although I like the idea of bringing tradi- ideas to life. Mariana Novotná who is a
tions and customs to life I think that such costume maker based in Prague has been
artistic work cannot be easily repeated. I part of my creative process since 2009.
don't see myself as an expert, an ethnog- Just as with Zoe Simon, we have this
rapher… I see myself as a woman… amazing connection and most importantly
artist… mother who is communicating shared passion for folklore. I had seen my
with the world around her through visual Clipping The Church costume in a dream
art. A curator and a friend Bar before it was made. I remember I called
Yerushalmi once told me that he sees me Mariana the next day and told her that I
as a social changer. He said: “Tereza, you know what it must look like, she said
have a special talent of bringing people “Amazing! Draw it and I will make it.”
together through art… don’t lose that.”
Tereza Bušková (b.1978, Prague) complet-
Does your work intend to somehow point to ed her Fine Art Printmaking MA at the
the peculiarity of common human ritual or Royal College of Art in 2007. Buskova’s
is it perhaps to create new ritual with a work has been exhibited at Rituals, David
Roberts Art Foundation, London (2008);
symbolism more in tune with modern ideas
A Tradition I Do Not Mean To Break,
or possibilities? I’m thinking specifically of
Zabludowicz Collection, London (2009);
your Hidden Mothers piece.
I make new rituals because folklore is
about taking something existing and Rituals Are Tellers Of Us, Newlyn Art
retelling its story. Folklore always evolves. Gallery, UK (2013); and Reality Czech:
We all know that mothers are important, The Czech Avant-Garde, Whitechapel
but to this day there is stigma and judg- Gallery. London, London (2015). She has
ment which comes with pregnancy and exhibited, performed and lectured in a
early motherhood. The support of the broad range of different spaces, including
local community for many mothers has Lincoln’s Chambers Farm Wood (2010),
reduced over time. Today’s society too Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo (2014), and
often adopts a patronising, utilitarian atti- Erdington High Street, UK (2016).
tude which blinds it to the particular
needs of parents and families. As a conse- Public art project Hidden Mothers is sup-
quence many new mothers experience ported by the Arts Council England,
feelings of loneliness and isolation from USE_IT (University of Birmingham),
their social networks, unknown to them Czech Centre in London and Czech &
before. Some feel actively ostracised and Slovak Club UK.
judged when they should be encouraged
and cherished. Personalised new rituals Images on this page: Designs for
offer me and other mothers an opportuni- Hidden Mothers.
ty for expression rather than being
trapped in the confines of the past. It
www.terezabuskova.com
December/January 2020/21
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