Valentýna Janů

Valentýna Janů graduated from Prague’s FAMU in photography and later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (Studio of Intermedia Work II/Dušan Zahoranský and Pavla Sceranková School). Her suggestive installations often combine spectacular videos and video essays in environments completed by fabrics and other materials and objects. They playfully address big life questions determined by the world of technology, patriarchal system and climate change. Valentýna Janů explores the relations between the daily struggles of individuals and the global perspective. Despite being rather critical, her work is also almost obsessively romantic. The artist recently presented her work at Kunstverein Dresden (2022), EXILE Gallery in Vienna (2019) and National Gallery Prague (2018). In 2021, she became the laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. She is currently the head of the Intermedia Studio at FAVU Brno (together with Jonáš Strouhal).

Emancipation Possibilities of Contemporary Performance
The project focuses on searching for emancipation methods of contemporary performance. It explores the possibility of critical and political expression of fringe performances and ways of performing in the current all-encompassing reality of spectacle. The work aims to test emancipation strategies of fringe performative genres and to update found principles in local cultural contexts through performative practice.
The ethos of performative genres such as drag, burlesque, vogueing or strip is often associated with the themes of sexuality, erotica and kitsch, but also emancipation and the dismantling of gender stereotypes. The project aims to expand the discourse of contemporary performance art by these genres and to search for their common denominators. The mentioned performative expressions are examined from the point of view of gender, identity, history and culture and become a starting point for artistic research.