And I share in this fate myself: because I have skills, I suffer the envy of some, and to others I am a rival; but I am not so very clever. And then you are afraid of me. What harm can you suffer from me? It is not in my power — don’t be afraid of me, Creon — to do wrong to the royal family. What wrong have you done me? You married your daughter to the man you chose for her. But my husband, I do hate him. You, I think, have acted with good sense in this.
Euripides
To some extent, her story may have contributed also to the denomination process of natural disasters. Natural disasters used to be called with female names, what was not coincidence, because originally they’d been named by saints, who had been celebrated on the day of the disaster. Since the end of 70’s of 20th century, hurricanes, for instance, have been named in alphabetical order, not only with female, but also male names in turns. State of a person after learning about the infidelity of the partner has often similar uncontro-llable and destructive manifestations, often resulting in the evacuation on one side. Martina Smutná’s project is called Medea according to the well-known Greek mythological character.
The protagonist is a woman, who has been cheated on, and who under the influence of strong emotions commits multiple murders. The Medea complex is used also as a well-established concept, described as suppressed wish of mother to kill her own children, that comes out of the hatred towards their father. Psychologically, it’s about classic relay of evil and revenge – somebody, who has been hurt, will go on hurting. Through the history, the adaptations of the Medea’s story is dominated by male views, which depict her rather negatively. Female adaptations emerged only in connection to emancipation and feministic movement. German writer, Christa Wolf, in her work Medea: A Modern Retelling narrates her story from perspective of six people and depicts her as a sensitive and virtuous woman, as a victim of unethical society. Martina Smutná’s Medea project refers to the classical
Greek tragedy by Euripides, but the play is retold from modern point of view, as a protofeminist novel about the struggle of a woman, who cannot take responsibi-lity for her fate in the world dominated by men. At the same time, she discusses the question, whether there is still need to divide the world of emotions between male and female.
Outcome of this drama analyses is an audiovisual poem combining the original text by Euripides and authentic statements by respondents, whom the author approached through the Facebook social network and gave them questions about infidelity, both on the side of betrayed and betrayers. Visual element of the installation, which is dominated by the giant curtain, is not only a reference to the original play and scenography, but from symbolic perspective, it plays dual role – it reveals and shrouds at the same time. Martina Smutná (*1989, Kyjov) studied in the painting studio of Vladimír Skrepl at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. During her studies, she went through few internships across awide range of fine arts disciplines from sculpture, ceramics up to conceptual art. Her work so far has been moving between painting and object installations. Smutná explores options of connecting painting and scenography through the¨relation of an object towards space. She explores options of collective work both in collective exhibitions with Lucia Rosenfeldová and Alžběta Bačíková and as a member of the Studio without Master, i.e. the platform critically reflecting hierarchical relations in the education institutions. She is a co-founder of the feministicinitiative Čtrtá vlna.
