Rajská záhrada
2020 – ongoing
Her melodic voice tells the stories of the last days. She is cheerful, the children make her happy
and she is passionate about her recent project. Embodied optimism.
A sip of ice lemonade takes me back from virtual reality. Our continents are divided by the ocean,
we see the sun with a seven-hour difference, and we are both quarantined.
She says spring is beginning.
I look around our tropical garden, where everything is slowly beginning to bloom. I’ve never
been here during the rainy season, and at this point I don’t know I’ll be here for another six
months.
The Jardín del Edén series starts in late March 2020 in Mexico during the COVID-19 quarantine
period. It is based on selfie photographs of women with whom I conduct intercontinental
quarantine talks at various intensities.
Every woman perceives herself in her own way as beautiful and each of us have our own mirror
set on. I understand the selfie phenomenon as a certain abbreviation – an instant and, above all,
easily distributed self-portrait. The isolation factor brings a certain change, I begin to realize the
psychological depth in self presentation, the selfie changes into a probe into the state of the soul.
The final photographs represent a personification of an exotic plant in a portrait of a woman. To
unify the big differences in the technical quality of the delivered selfies, I decided for black and
white unification. Color tonality was preserved in portraits of tropical plants. These are
wonderfully exotic and uniquely beautiful, and so I perceive each of us. I see an Exotic Solitaire
in a mirror of each woman.
The series counts on 40 portraits of women, with reference to the original meaning of the word
quarantine. To date, I have received 22 selfies.
Katka Pračková
Sep 14, 2020, Mazunte Oaxaca
*update: 16 months since the project beginning, still at the same location, 31 selfies received
July 09, 2021, Mazunte Oaxaca