Dívka-motýl / A Butterfly Girl

Berenika Ovčáčková graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1986-1991, painting and graphic arts). After graduation she focused mainly on the graphic arts, serigraphy in particular (catalogue: Berenika Ovčáčková – Deset let grafické práce 1992-2002/Ten Years of Graphic Arts Work 1992-2002). In addition to the traditional methods (painting, drawing), Ovcackova also uses the computer. Her series of the prints inspired by the work of Franz Kafka (‘Kafka Cycle’, digital print, 2008) were processed and printed digitally. She lives and works in Prague and has received numerous awards. Author comments on her work: “The image of Girl-Butterfly was inspired by a documentary photograph from pre-war Vienna. One of its interpretations can be found in its connection to the holocaust, which, however, was an unknown term for the later Jewish genocide when the photograph was taken. Back then, Czechs, Germans … and Jews lived together in the central European space. The wings can also represent the desire for freedom and the escape of death, as well as, the death itself (the soul flies to heaven). Another interpretation, freed from all historical experience, may be a simple depiction of a sensation undergone by an abandoned or rejected child that wishes to go somewhere else (to fly away) or to return somewhere. the image of a little girl refers to the theme of childhood and the experience of it from a time distance. It can either be a memory from childhood or a story about us that someone told us. Memory is a recorded family event and is also the basis of great historical events.