AAU Professor Exhibits a Feminist Addition to the Brno City Gallery

Don’t You Know that Each of You is Eve, the name of Alena Foustková’s work, has been included among the new acquisitions of the Brno City Gallery. It’s not just about the title, but also about the idea and appeal behind her work.

The author explores the historical position of women in society, the question of why they have been marginalized for centuries, and why many of them still carry a sense of lesser self-worth. In her research, Foustková returned to the roots of the Judeo-Christian tradition where she found one of the keys to this imbalance: the story of Adam and Eve. It is Eve, traditionally perceived as the instigator of original sin, who becomes the centerpiece of her textile work as a deeper symbolic figure.

Multimedia artist Alena Foustková, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and teaches at the Anglo-American University in Prague, has long been dedicated to the themes of memory, identity, and the female experience.

The textile and embroidery work Don’t You Know that Each of You is Eve was first presented at the Kampa Museum in the exhibition Women Must Cover Their Heads Because They Are Not the Image of God. It is now on display at the Brno City Gallery, in the Acquisitions Over the Last 10 Years exhibition, which is taking place at Špilberk Castle on the 120th anniversary of the Brno City Museum. The exhibition presents a selection of works acquired for the collection over the past decade, and visitors can view the work of sixteen contemporary artists until the end of August.

Alena Foustková (1957, Karviná) studied graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. After emigrating in 1984, she lived in Toronto for 10 years where she worked with international advertising agencies. After returning to the Czech Republic, she participated in the launch of Saatchi&Saatchi’s Prague branch and led creative teams at major agencies. Since 2009, she has been fully dedicated to fine arts and teaching, currently working at the Anglo-American University in Prague.

This article was originally published by Proti Šedi and is reposted here with the author’s permission.