{"id":3574,"date":"2016-04-19T19:29:33","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T19:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artinbox.cz\/?p=3574"},"modified":"2016-04-19T20:07:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-19T20:07:11","slug":"sparking-discussion-one-of-art-in-box%e2%80%99s-missions-says-gallery-owner-nadia-rovderova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artinbox.cz\/?p=3574","title":{"rendered":"Sparking discussion one of Art in Box\u2019s missions, says gallery owner Nadia Rovderov\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.radio.cz\/en\/section\/one-on-one\/sparking-discussion-one-of-art-in-boxs-missions-says-gallery-owner-nadia-rovderova<\/a><\/p>\n

18-04-2016 13:56 |\u00a0Ian Willoughby<\/a><\/p>\n

In over five years of existence, the Art in Box gallery in downtown Prague has put on exhibitions by the great exile photographer Jan Lukas, filmmaking legend Jan \u0160vankmajer and scores of other noteworthy names in various genres. The small gallery is run by the Slovak-born curator, artist and journalist Nadia Rovderov\u00e1.. When we met recently at Art in Box, I asked Rovderov\u00e1 what had first brought her to the Czech capital.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Nadia<\/a><\/div>\n
Nadia Rovderov\u00e1, photo: archive of Nadia Rovderov\u00e1, CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a><\/div>\n
\u201cActually [her hometown] Poprad was too small for me. When I was 18 I started to study in Bratislava. I started in September 1989 and two months later the revolution started.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cThe revolution was happening mainly in Prague so after taking part in some student revolutionary activities I decided that I wanted to see it in Prague.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy girlfriend and I hitchhiked to Prague from Bratislava. We got here in the beginning of December. So that\u2019s how it started. And I stayed!\u201d<\/p>\n

What are your strongest memories of that period of the revolution?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think something so strong will happen to me ever. It was such a powerful, fantastic time full of energy, full of hope, full of ideas that might change the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad that I was already 18 and could be here. Because if I had been 17, my parents wouldn\u2019t have let me go.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut this was the best time to grow up, to be an adult and to take part in all of that fantastic atmosphere that was in Prague at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

When did your interest in photography first begin?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cActually I grew up in a family where my father was an amateur photographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was doing his black-and-white photographs in our bathroom and I was watching how he did it and was very interested.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to do it as well, so when I was 15, 16, 17, I was already taking a lot of photographs and developing my own pictures. I took part in student contests. This is how it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen in Prague, during the revolution, I met my first boyfriend. He came from a famous family of photographers.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually his great-great-grandfather was one of the first Czech photographers: Jaroslav Feyfar.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis grandfather Zdenko Feyfar was a good friend of Sudek and all these famous people here.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were living in his studio where he had his enlarger and all his equipment. We were surrounded by fantastic photos. We were helping him \u2013 when he was photographing Prague Castle, we assisted him.<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/a><\/p>\n

Art in Box gallery, photo: archive of Art in Box gallery<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n

So I fell into the photographic waters in Prague and I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

You started Art in Box five or six years ago. What did you do between the time you\u2019re talking about and the beginning of the gallery?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I started as a journalist, because the university where I studied was the Philosophical Faculty, Department of Journalism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interviewing artists. I was writing articles about art. I was cooperating for eight years on a big project, a book on Andy Warhol, which was recently published by the publishers Arbor Vitae. So I was already around art.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in 2002 I started to be involved with M.E.C.C.A., the Middle European Colony of Contemporary Art, in Terez\u00edn. We were doing exhibitions and workshops and I was running the photo centre there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2003 I started to run a gallery of Czech sculpture, ArtPro, here in Prague. I ran that for four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I became a mother and was taking care of two small children. After that I could decide whether to go on with the gallery where I was employed, or whether to start my own project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided for the second option, which was quite difficult but more joyful for me, let\u2019s say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell us about the beginnings of Art in Box \u2013 what were the big challenges in the early days?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTo survive. Because having a private gallery in the Czech Republic is really not an easy thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re actually struggling every day and every month to be here and to do what we want to do, to have money to do what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your system here \u2013 do you also sell photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course. If we didn\u2019t, we wouldn\u2019t be able to survive financially. So we need some income from selling photography or other art works.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso we try to get support for some exhibition projects from some institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

I notice from your website that you have worked a few times with Jan \u0160vankmajer. How did that come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jan<\/a><\/p>\n

Jan \u0160vankmajer, photo: \u0160\u00e1rka \u0160ev\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I am so glad to have the opportunity to organise exhibitions with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gallery actually started in October 2010 with our first exhibition, which was an exhibition of work by Jan \u0160vankmajer connected to his movie Survive Your Life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe showed here collages made from photographs which were animated in the movie. So this was our beginning<\/p>\n

\u201cLast October we celebrated five years, so we organised a small exhibition of his recent work here in the small hall and it was a big success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad I have this opportunity to work with this great personality of Czech art and Czech film.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s he like at the personal level? To me he\u2019s an almost mythical figure who lives up at the Castle in his little house, if he still does. What\u2019s he really like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s fantastic. He\u2019s very modest and very smart. For me he\u2019s like a personality from a fairytale. He\u2019s really got a kind of aura around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to observe how people react to him. Several times here I\u2019ve witnessed a scene here when there were visitors at the gallery \u2013 a Japanese woman, a man from France \u2013 and when they saw him live they almost collapsed, because they couldn\u2019t believe he was real!<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really like from a fantasy world. But he\u2019s a real person and he\u2019s a very, very nice man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otherwise what have been some of the outstanding or particularly noteworthy exhibitions you\u2019ve had here over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, there have been tens and tens of exhibitions\u2026 A very big success was our exhibition of Jan Lukas last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the anniversary of his birth and we were actually the only gallery to show his work here in Prague. He had several exhibitions in \u010cesk\u00e9 Bud\u011bjovice, where he was born.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredible to see the amount of people who wanted to see his work. It was for me a pleasure to see that my work really has some meaning.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: archive of Art in Box gallery<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the exhibition was almost finished we got some financial support from the Czech Ministry of Culture and we were able to print a catalogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m very glad that we have some result of this exhibition which will be lasting. Because exhibitions finish and if you don\u2019t have a catalogue, nothing remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great to publish the catalogue, which has had great success, just like the exhibition had.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we had several themed exhibitions, which is another direction that I\u2019m trying to go in.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome exhibitions were reacting to topics that I thought were important to talk about.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance we had the group exhibition Peace Please, where 40 or 50 artists were showing their work on the somewhat shaky peace in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way we reacted to the presidential elections. I organised the exhibition Who lies, steals? [From a Czech phrase that goes, Whoever lies can also steal].<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an exhibition in which we were asking about the moral aspects of politics and about what politicians are doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to show some aspects that we think society should be talking about and discussing.\u201d<\/p>\n

So do you feel that to some degree the gallery also has a political mission?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSure. These were two examples but we also had an exhibition which was about the Holocaust, an exhibition that focused on femininity and an exhibition under the title The Art of Giving Birth, about women and their mission to become a mother and how society deals with that fact.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually these difficult themes cause people not to come to our gallery. People don\u2019t want to see birth, they don\u2019t want to see the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeace Please was also a less visited exhibition than the others, because people don\u2019t like to see the dark sides of life. But I think it\u2019s important to show them and to talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Art<\/a><\/p>\n

Art in Box gallery, photo: archive of Art in Box gallery<\/a><\/p>\n

Generally speaking do you have trouble attracting people to Art in Box? It\u2019s in a building, down a corridor, down some steps and it\u2019s kind of a small space.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little bit worried about it in the beginning. But actually we realised that once people learn where we are they know how to get here and they come back.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that big a problem as I thought it would be in the beginning. Of course if we were on the street, visible from the street, it would be easier. But I don\u2019t think it\u2019s that big a problem as it might seem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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