The name Libuše Jarcovjáková meant nothing to most art enthusiasts before 2019, when her work received an exhibition at LUMA Arles. The show was a resounding success, and critics felt they had found a new Vivian Maier—only this one was Czech, very much alive despite her deadpan voice, and more Nan Goldin than Maier in her aesthetic. Born in 1952, Jarcovjáková grew up in postwar Prague and studied the arts; she was 18 when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, in 1968. Because photography wasn’t an easy trade to enter, she took print jobs and shot her co-workers, her husband, and countless lovers instead. After a stint in Tokyo in the 1980s, Jarcovjáková returned to Prague and made its queer underground scene her main subject, nightly photographing men and women in drag, making out, smoking cigarettes, getting down and dirty. Klara Tasovska’s debut film, which is made in collaboration with Jarcovjáková, chronicles her art and life through photographs and diary entries. —Elena Clavarino
The Arts Intel Report
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be
Film still from Klára Tasovská, I’m Not Everything I Want to Be, 2024.
When
Until Oct 10
Where
The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH, United Kingdom
Etc
Photo courtesy of ICA London