“Young, beautiful, desirable. Men find her irresistible, but something is happening to her, something
that she doesn’t quite understand, and soon, she will be swept up in a frantic fury of…REPULSION.”
When in 1965 back then 32 years old Roman Polanski made his first film outside of Poland, he
became right away celebrated as a new star of international cinematography. The film was Repulsion
starring Catherine Deneuve. Nowadays, and especially in the Anglo-American environment, is
Repulsion perceived as a work of a sexual predator. Even though Polanski’s European audience is
much more lenient in judging him in the light of continuously appearing allegations of sexual
misconduct. Polanski himself, living for years in involuntary exile in France, feels to be treated
unjustly as he illustrates in his latest film, “J’Accuse!” (“I accuse,” officially presented in English as
“An Officer and a Spy”) depicting the story of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Army officer accused on the
bases of falsified documents.
Repulsion tells a story of an attractive young woman consistently followed by unwanted gazes and
non-consensual touches of men, gradually leading to a dramatic disintegration of her psyche. The
constant aggressions in her life slowly transform into hallucinations and visions of repeated rape. The
borderline between reality and imagination dissolves. Countless bodiless grabbing hands of men are
piercing through the walls like branches of a homogenous impenetrable forest during a gale, leading
Carol Ledoux (Deneuve) to total paralysis. If one of the pairs of hands belongs both literally and
figuratively to the director himself is a crucial question of the current critique of the film.
***
Kateřina Vincourová’s oeuvre draws from the intimate environment of home translated through
combinations of seemingly random found materials of quotidian usage into sculptural forms and
installations. Composed with an intense inner tension or natural, yet on the first sight, unnoticeable
instability. Stretched rubber bands, hair combs or drawstring underwear enter a fluid dialog with
fragments of deconstructed fashion mannequins and other anthropomorphic holders as if taken out of a
storefront of a haberdashery.
A stereotypical perception of an idea of home as a safe haven in the midst of stormy waters of the
world around enters into a radical contrast with a reality of regular and for every human relationship
typical and required conflicts. Situations which are literally hanging in the air without an adequate
verbalization and reflection gradually form invisible volumes subjected to natural laws, specifically
gravity. Their weight is mirrored on its surroundings and creates clear physical manifestations in the
space.
Legs, hands, necks, and torsos are revealing themselves from the walls or the floor to absorb their
vicinity as if there are not mere fragments but full bodies. Their movement in time is frozen like a
jammed hourglass. Flags and rods are being held by invisible hands, which failed to come through and
stayed hidden in the solid brick lining or temporary plasterboard partitions. The time oscillates and for
brief moments also allows the merging of segments of possible pasts. The sun is rising behind the
windows.
A potential of soft violence, which could also be a source of pleasure and joy, keeps the atmosphere
tensed as the ribbons, fibers, and bands of Kateřina’s objects. Fragility, fluidity, ambiguity.
***
What Polanski brings into drastically naturalist depiction of a gradual escalation of psychosis leading
to a murder, Kateřina approaches as a continuous daily process constructed around subtle suggestions.
Hands petrified in the walls are not necessarily only a source of aggression and abuse, but also tools
for ordinary activities, of a political protest, activism or just simple soft caresses. The parallel between
both presents an additional layer of tension and potentiality for a variety of readings. But at the end of
the day, such a connection is merely an arbitrary aid. Innocence, in this case, is not a naive state
lacking awareness, but rather an informed and intentionally self-aware perception of the world around
and its changes.
Curated by Jen Kratochvil
Courtesy of the artist and Zahorian & Van Espen
Photocredit Martin Polák