THE MAY QUEENS marks the culmination of a participatory project of the same name, developed within the programme Art for the City, which for several days transformed the Kačerov metro station into a site of ritual, care, and shared imagination. Artist Jakub Jahn and curator Kristýna Hájková, together with sixteen girls from ZŠ Cimburkova, revived the folk tradition of “opening the springs” and translated it into the context of the contemporary urban environment. Cleaning a neglected fountain, offering flowers to commuters, and a final procession accompanied by music composed by Amelie Siba disrupted the rhythm of everyday transit and returned a sense of forgotten depth, tenderness, and human connection to the utilitarian anonymity of the city.
The exhibition at Kobka 17 on the Smíchov riverfront now presents this ephemeral intervention in a gallery format for the first time. It introduces a two-channel video installation accompanied by an original score by Amelie Siba, along with photographs and other artefacts that together create an immersive environment situated between documentary, visual stylisation, and spatial installation. Rather than simply documenting a past event, the exhibition reconfigures its meaning, allowing the original action to unfold further and acquire new layers of interpretation. THE MAY QUEENS thus moves across the boundaries of participatory art, happening, ritual, documentary film, and spatial installation. Drawing on folklore without attempting to reconstruct it literally, the project reactivates it as a living cultural impulse—one through which relationships on multiple levels can be reimagined.
Author: Jakub Jahn
Curator: Kristýna Hájková
Production: Umění pro město / Marie Foltýnová, Rebeka Provazníková, Agáta Hošnová
Music: Amelie Siba
Text and incantation lettering: Michaela Fenkl
Photography: Jean-Claude Etegnot
Cinematography: David Markovič
Choreography: Andrea Benková
Exhibition architecture: Natálie Najbrtová
Visual identity: Laura Morovská
Styling: 1981 Secondhand (Barbora Velebová & Kristýna Tulachová)
Educational collaboration: Markéta Pompová, Kristýna Gorolová
The project was created as part of the Umění pro město programme / Prague City Gallery.
THE MAY QUEENS marks the culmination of a participatory project of the same name, developed within the programme Art for the City, which for several days transformed the Kačerov metro station into a site of ritual, care, and shared imagination. Artist Jakub Jahn and curator Kristýna Hájková, together with sixteen girls from ZŠ Cimburkova, revived the folk tradition of “opening the springs” and translated it into the context of the contemporary urban environment. Cleaning a neglected fountain, offering flowers to commuters, and a final procession accompanied by music composed by Amelie Siba disrupted the rhythm of everyday transit and returned a sense of forgotten depth, tenderness, and human connection to the utilitarian anonymity of the city.
The exhibition at Kobka 17 on the Smíchov riverfront now presents this ephemeral intervention in a gallery format for the first time. It introduces a two-channel video installation accompanied by an original score by Amelie Siba, along with photographs and other artefacts that together create an immersive environment situated between documentary, visual stylisation, and spatial installation. Rather than simply documenting a past event, the exhibition reconfigures its meaning, allowing the original action to unfold further and acquire new layers of interpretation. THE MAY QUEENS thus moves across the boundaries of participatory art, happening, ritual, documentary film, and spatial installation. Drawing on folklore without attempting to reconstruct it literally, the project reactivates it as a living cultural impulse—one through which relationships on multiple levels can be reimagined.
Author: Jakub Jahn
Curator: Kristýna Hájková
Production: Umění pro město / Marie Foltýnová, Rebeka Provazníková, Agáta Hošnová
Music: Amelie Siba
Text and incantation lettering: Michaela Fenkl
Photography: Jean-Claude Etegnot
Cinematography: David Markovič
Choreography: Andrea Benková
Exhibition architecture: Natálie Najbrtová
Visual identity: Laura Morovská
Styling: 1981 Secondhand (Barbora Velebová & Kristýna Tulachová)
Educational collaboration: Markéta Pompová, Kristýna Gorolová
The project was created as part of the Umění pro město programme / Prague City Gallery.
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