Anna Hulačová

Press Preview                         
Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 10:30 a.m.

Opening
Thursday, 13 November 2025, 7 p.m.

Artist Talk
Friday, 14 November 2025, 2 p.m.

Exhibition duration      
14 November 2025 –  1 March 2026
Tue – Sun, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

The defining themes of Anna Hulačová’s œuvre are ecology and agriculture. In her works, the Czech artist (born in 1984) develops a dualism out of the tension between utopia and dystopia, reflecting the conflict between pessimism and optimism towards the current and future state of the world. Hulačová’s drawings and sculptures – of processing machines, plants, animals and people – made of concrete, ceramics and wood capture a tense in-between state: hybrid beings, their physicality and function are transformed, connected and merged into one another. They no longer seem to be fully bound to earthly conditions. Bearing the past within themselves, they are confronted with a changed environment and respond to this through further development.

The “Alienbees”, for example, are based on an evolutionary mechanism of bees by which their bodies change in order to ward off parasites. As pollinators, bees are integral elements in the food chain; when they mutate into aliens, however, and strive for an extra-terrestrial existence, they give rise in Hulačová’s exhibitions to fictional narratives, to which the artist gives the rhyming title “Alienbees, save us, please!” (Galeria Arsenał, Białystok, Poland, 2021). The artist treats bees not only referentially or narratively but also tangibly: some of the sculptures are designed as beehives, while in others, mainly wooden creatures reminiscent of human bodies, actual bee colonies build honeycombs. These replace central organs and symbolize the soul.

Rooted in in the history of agriculture and the cultural-historical development of myths and legends, Hulačová’s core themes deal with complex phenomena of change in an accessible way. The consequences of the communist forced collectivization and expulsion in what was then Czechoslovakia are still felt in today’s Czech Republic and are part of her family history. She developed her formal language from the intensive study of Czech folk art, Soviet brutalism, the formal theories of futurism and traditional crafts (both as precursors and legacies). Understanding yesterday in order to enter into dialogue with today and shape tomorrow is the basic tenet of Hulačová’s art. It receives expression in her highly charged artistic language, which spins strands of fictional narrative out of history, biology and ecology in a virtuoso manner.

For the exhibition at Kunstraum Dornbirn, Hulačová combines new works with previously existing ones to create a narrative specifically shaped for the space of the former assembly hall.

Biography Anna Hulačová (born 1984 in Sušice, Czech Republic) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, the Studio of Intermedia Work II under Jiří Příhoda. She has exhibited her work at many institutions, including CEEAC in Strasbourg, National Gallery Prague, Galeria Arsenał in Białystok, Brno House of Arts, Art Encounters Biennial 2021 in Timisoara, MO.CO. Montpellier, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Liberec Regional Gallery, East Slovakian Regional Gallery in Košice, 2019 Aichi Triennial in Japan, Casino Luxembourg, Baltic Triennial 13, Prague City Gallery, and Gdansk City Gallery.