A curatorial text by Denisa Tomkova
www.denisatomko.wixsite.com/denisatomkova

I would like to very warmly welcome you all to the opening of the exhibition of two Slovak female artists and mothers Ivana Pančáková and Eva Tkáčiková Čarnoká entitled “The Mothers of Theresa“. The exhibition will take place beginning today (the 16 September) until the 16 October at the Müszi in Budapest. This project has been supported using public funds provided by Slovak Arts Council (www.fpu.sk).

The title of the show is a play on the words by the artists who both have a daughter named Theresa. The artists here show their observation of the world as mothers and thus that they are not Mother Theresas but rather just mothers of Theresas. They believe that art is some kind of service to the world. The traditional female feminist dilemma occurs here again, that being, how to manage motherhood and artistic labour at the same time. After the realization that they did not need to save the world in a big gesture, the artists decided to concentrate their art in the simplicity of the everyday life.

Eva Tkáčiková Čarnoká was born in 1974 in Žilina (Slovakia). In the year 2000 she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, with degree in Colour Graphics and Printmaking. Her work includes: graphic experiment, photography, object, installation, light art, site specific art and happening. In addition to working as a fine-artist, Eva also works as an art teacher. For this exhibition, Eva created luminous (LED light) objects for the tables at the Müszi club which she made out of kitchen materials.

Ivana Pančáková was born in 1971 in Prešov (Slovakia). In 1995 she graduated from the Faculty of Pedagogy at the Prešov University. Since 1999, Ivana has been working as an art teacher at the Elementary Art School in Prešov. She works in the fields of conceptual art, painting, drawing, photography, installation and land art. For this exhibition, Ivana transformed herbs, flowers, and vegetables from her garden by leaving out the colour and adjusting their scale into the drawings and so changing banal objects into her personal ‘universe’.

In relation to the current proliferation of socially-engaged art projects, whereby an artist serves the community, feeds the hungry, tries to include minorities into society, or simply points out big ecological, social or political issues; the work of Ivana and Eva is built on a very different conviction. They believe that art is some kind of service, but that the service itself is, a very personal message given to the audience. They both share simple every day moments of their lives which are transformed into magical universes.

I wish you all a pleasant aesthetic experience and an enjoyable evening at the Müszi.