This project, created for the Artwall gallery, focuses on the historical and contemporary position of transgender people. Its aim is to highlight the varied forms of repression and suffering this group is subjected to. Historical perspectives on this issue vary, but they are virtually never positive. The Church considered transgenderism a sin; in many countries, trans individuals are criminalised; not long ago, modern medicine considered them patients suffering from mental illness, and it is only recently that we have witnessed an endeavour to dissociate pathology from transgenderism. On the other end of the spectrum, conservative social forces and right-wing extremists are trying to erase transgender and non-binary persons from public space, a process now taking place in Poland and Hungary. The situations experienced by trans individuals in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are also difficult, but there are also strong emancipatory narratives. This too can be the subject of “Punished”.
The opening will take place at Jelení gallery.