Gabriela Benish-Kalná
Young Farmer
9. 10. – 1. 11. 2026
opening: 8. 10. 2026 at 6 PM
curator: Gabriela Kotiková
Gabriela Kotiková: You mentioned that your interests lie at the intersection of posthumanist sentiment and traditional farming practices. In your artistic work, you explore the romanticization of the countryside, the modern dream of community and self-sufficient living, and the anxiety surrounding interspecies care. Could it be said that you intentionally portray a contradictory view of the countryside, one that also involves challenging a certain idealized perspective held by people who have never experienced this way of life?
Gabriela Benish-Kalná: Yes, absolutely. Romanticization is so subjective, for example I think older generations here don’t generally see butchering a rooster as something horrible, but younger ones, even for us really, it was a pretty big deal. And even more than romanticizing the rural we tend to have an idealized image of this self-sufficient and communal life somewhere outside of the system, in direct opposition to extractivist capitalism.
The inter- or multispecies anxiety stems from the constant care of both the animals and ecosystem and the awareness that, to a certain extent, I have the ability to influence them: the pastures are drying up, so we’ll rotate them; the birch trees are dying out, so we planted 60 new saplings, but they’re drying up too, so hopefully the well won’t run dry; the hen has a prolapse, so that’s three days of care; then the ducklings have to be brought inside the house because a predator suddenly chewed its way into the chicken coop… and out of all our animals, that’s just the poultry that made it into the exhibition. Then we’re working on business plans so we can make a living from this, sell tomatoes at the market, where merchants drive prices down to a fraction of what they are in supermarkets.
In your work, you also explore your relationship with farm animals and the issues surrounding animal husbandry and meat consumption in general. I find it interesting that your photographs also contain irony and depict reality without embellishment.
For me, it’s constant tension between my sensitivity and my relationship with animals, which I’ve had since I was a child, and the awareness that this is the most effective way for us personally to be self-sufficient. Our farm doesn't have enough land to grow plant-based protein, which brings me back to the whole issue of agricultural land being inaccessible to new farmers, lease agreements, and the outrageous prices per hectare. And on the farm, every human and more-than-human being has a role; we are an ecosystem in and of ourselves.
The topic of agriculture in a post-communist country dominated by large corporations such as Agrofert is, in and of itself, a political issue. Do you believe it’s possible to restore greater respect for the landscape and revive farming practices that do not come at the expense of future generations?
Definitely, and this is evident today in the number of new farms and agricultural operations that practice regenerative farming, market gardening, agroforestry, and other sustainable approaches to land management, restoration of ecosystems and fostering biodiversity. Even though the political situation is disastrous right now, I still have a lot of hope for this shift toward regeneration.
Could you tell us how you approached this exhibition at the Jelení Gallery? Is there anything you’d like to say about the exhibition’s title?
“Young Farmer” is the abbreviation used for the grant program 49.75, Support for Establishing Activities of Young Farmers, without which most beginning farmers don't stand a chance of getting a real start. We've been trying to get this grant for over two years, so it's a particularly relevant topic for me right now.
This exhibition is part of the Parallel Program of Fotograf Zone festival 2026.
The program of the Jeleni Gallery is possible through kind support of Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Prague City Council, State Fund of Culture of the Czech Republic, City District Prague 7,
GESTOR – The Union for the Protection of Authorship
Partners: Art Hotel Praha
Media partners: ArtMap, jlbjlt.net
