Ivana Šáteková — There Were Both People and Women

Ivana Šáteková is an artist and activist who focuses on social and political topics, reflects on Slovak folklore and literature, traditions, proverbs and last but not least, Slovak human nature, which she re-evaluates critically and offers her viewers a non-idealised image of our society, stripped of non-critical romanticism which is so often present in the interpretation of folk culture and traditions. She challenges our deeply rooted way of thinking inherited from generation to generation and stereotypical acceptance of “folk wisdom” full of anger, hatred and violence. Her comments are ironic and provocative, focusing on certain features of Slovak nature (slander, jealousy, intolerance, etc.), but also the position of women in society, an alarming rise in xenophobia, chauvinism, misogyny, racism or antisemitism. She emphasises the fact that rural life used to be based on a patriarchal society where women were considered inferior while being controlled, manipulated and often even humiliated, with some of the characteristics being preserved to this day.

Ivana Šáteková’s linocut series titled There Were Both People and Women is named after a Slovak proverb she has found in the Slovak Proverbs, Sayings and Idioms anthology from 1897, written by a folklorist, poet, novelist, evangelic priest and teacher Adolf Peter Záturecký. The artist challenges the collected folk “wisdom” and comments ironically on the shocking contents of the late-19th-century sayings about the position of women in society.  She points out the historical fact about women being excluded from the world of PEOPLE – MEN as they were considered second-class citizens whose only purpose was to take care of the household and basic needs of the family. Women were supposed to be satisfied just by the fact of being good wives and mothers without the need for their own self-realisation. The artist uses dark humour to comment on the cruel content of the proverb by depicting rural women while working in the field. She has replaced their heads, bearing any characteristic facial features, with anonymous empty jars or jugs as symbols of the work they did for their households. The image’s cruel features are even emphasised by one of the women having a leash around her neck and as she being led around by her man. This submissive behaviour is linked to the notion of the obedient housewife she has been raised to be. The artist critically reflects upon the inadequate behaviour of men toward women and draws attention to the deeply rooted violence on women which is surprisingly and disturbingly present throughout folk literature and has survived, in some way, into the present as well. It is also illustrated by other proverbs from Záturecký’s anthology, which suggest that physical abuse is not just allowed, but even required: “Beating your woman is like plowing your field”, “Woman is like a wooden jar, it will dry out unless beaten”, “Money is good when made of paper, woman when beaten”. The visual form of the linocuts is based on prints with folk themes dating to the 1950s and 1960s that were produced by famous Slovak artists who would often depict Slovak rural life and present women as stereotypical mothers or housewives. The There Were Both People and Women series is symbolically, although not intentionally, linked to Slovakia’s refusal to ratify the Istanbul Convention that aims to protect women’s rights, prevent violence on women and press charges against the perpetrators.