Dorota Václavíková
After the Rain
9. 9. – 2. 10. 2026
opening: 8. 9. 2026 at 6 PM
curator: Miso Ormos
I am standing in a cloud. Inside it. I cannot comprehend that water can fly.
When I gaze ahead, as far as I possibly can, I see nothing but fizz. Specks on my retina, traces of cells, bacteria, and viruses. They shimmer like the promise of rain that never comes. Joined by the muons passing through my eye, they perform a ritual, fractal dance, summoning the rain.
The light blinds me. It is white, and so it contains everything. A promise.
The gallery is a cloud. I am a drop. I take a deep breath. I can sense the water, the damp earth, the urge to grow. Petrichor and ozone. I close my eyes and try not to breathe. I know my senses deceive me, and that I, too, am fallible. The summer was dry, stripped of dreams.
And still, I want to believe in water.
The puddles are turned inside out. In their inversion, they resemble water's graves. The contours of clouds. Small mounds left behind by rain long gone.
Puddles. We might have jumped over them. Or, lost in our own thoughts, walked straight through them, soaking our shoes and swearing under our breath. Had they frozen, we might have slipped on them. Perhaps even skated across them. They were meeting places. Imperfections in a system designed to be rigid and level. Supposedly correct. Yet they opened a fleeting opportunity to encounter water.
What was it like to be drenched? Does the water still remember me?
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The exhibition at Jelení Gallery features three interconnected works. Kaluže is a series of casts documenting significant puddles from Prague, Pardubice, and Kutná Hora. The scent Dešťovka, developed in collaboration with Lila Tesla, permeates the space through an aroma diffuser. Completing the installation, the video Po dešti is an abstract experimental animation created using rain-soaked tracing paper and inspired by František Kyncl’s work Scénář (Script).
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Dorota Václavíková is an artist and cultural worker living and working between Prague and Pardubice, and Kutná Hora. In 2025, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), where she received the Rector’s Prize for her projects Memento Můry (Memento of a Month) and V uchu velryby (In the Ear of a Whale). She co-organises the multidisciplinary Trať Festival and a cemetery party at St Kunhuta’s Church. This is her first solo exhibition since graduating. Her previous presentations include exhibitions at Umakart Gallery in Brno, MUD in Benešov, and Jedna dva tři Gallery in Prague. Her practice focuses primarily on installation, (interactive) video, and water.
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Dorota would like to thank: Mišo Ormoš, Gábina Kotiková & CSU, Matěj Coufal, Prokop Václavík, Ondřej Konrád, Taber Kotik, Lila Tesla, Ema Kašparová, Lucie Francová, František Václavík, Manka Lustigová, Antonín Závodný, Max Stejskal, Zuzana Bartošovičová
This exhibition is part of the Prague Art Week 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
