This catalogue was published on the occassion of Eva Koťátková’s installation The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter which is still on view until 24 November, 2024 at the Czech and Slovak Republic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Italy.

The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter tells the story of Lenka the giraffe, drawing on the history of Czechoslovakia’s acquisition of animals from the Global South. Interpreted through contemporary ecological and decolonial perspectives, the project builds a space for imagining a different way of relating to nature.

Lenka the Giraffe was captured in Kenya in 1954 and transported to Prague Zoo to become the very first Czechoslovak giraffe. She survived only two years in captivity, after which her body was donated to the National Museum in Prague where it was exhibited as a museum artefact until 2000. The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter, Eva Koťátková’s collaborative project for the Czech representation at the 60th Venice Biennale, reimagines Lenka’s story as a poetic, embodied encounter for the audience, invited collaborators and the artist, but also as a place of critical intervention in the relationship between institutions and the natural world.

Kot’átková’s collaborative project aims to question hierarchies, violence and extractive practices embedded in the way we encounter, view, and learn about animals, suggesting different modes of engagement where care, imagination and emotion are as important as historical narrative. Alongside the collaboration with artists and composers Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser (Hylozoic/Desires), Lenka’s story is also interpreted by children, educators and older people, who were Lenka’s contemporaries; with the installation conceived of as a collective body facilitating multiple forms of storytelling. With a contribution by the collective Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures, The heart of a giraffe… builds a space where belonging can be formed through emotions, touch and ecological relations instead of fixed notions of identity and nation.

The catalogue is edited by Hana Janečková, who is also the curator of the installation and Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague.