The large installation of Eva Kotatkova in the four showcases of the driveway of the Telekom Innovation Arena in Berlin tells the fictional story of four children and their different forms of communication. In her work Kotatkova often deals with social structures, education systems, the human body as a shell or a prison. She traces the inner restrictions as well as the outer limits generated through the educational system. For her work she often uses antiquarian books, illustrations, photographs and sketches. This material is newly rearranged and sometimes enhanced with drawings by the artist. A certain color pervades her work: the patina of an antique book. She plays with this vague impression of dust, with the slight horror that may be provoked by something old and discarded. She acts in a psychological condition that can produce a slight appearance of malaise, an unpleasant anxiety.
Something seems to resist a liberated, carefree and humorous way of dealing. Is it the body that was trained by education and conventions? Is it the social peer pressure of Community, that integrate us into a network of rules and rigid structures? Is it ourselves, who cannot liberate from our psychological and physical entrapment making us act more like more like mechanical dolls?
If so, how should open communication be possible? How should an exchange of thoughts, feelings and hunches succeed, that is not immediately based on a misunderstanding?