BEÁTA HECHTOVÁ. Silver Lining

What does it mean to be present, when the way we live has become a thing of the past? In her series Silver Lining, presented at C.A. Contemporary, Czech artist Beáta Hechtová envisions a world after collapse—a fragile future inhabited by survivors who reorganize themselves, abandon old patterns, and search for connection and orientation through ritual gestures, collective actions, and bodily metamorphosis.

This “futuristic folklore” challenges some of the core beliefs of our time: that identity must be clear-cut, that boundaries are fixed, that humans stand apart from nature. Hechtová’s figures disrupt this order. Their bodies are open, hybrid, somewhere between human, animal, and spirit. Gender, species, status—all remain ambiguous. In place of certainty, she offers ambivalence. Her world is neither dystopian nor utopian—it is both at once.

With atmospheric visual power, sensitive use of color, and sculptural elements, Hechtová creates an aesthetic realm where transformation, vulnerability, and hope coexist. The faces of her figures remain hidden—not to distance the viewer, but to draw us in. We don’t see them—we see ourselves. Silver Lining strikes at the core of our present moment: a time in which old certainties are crumbling and new ways of living, thinking, and feeling are urgently needed.

The accompanying film offers insight into the artist’s inner world—and invites us on a journey into the unknown, to a place where something new may begin.

https://www.cacontemporary.com/

Interviewee: Beáta Hechtová
Artworks by: Beáta Hechtová

Copyright info: The audio and video recording has been made with personal permission of the artist.
Licensing: 0
Language(s): English
Subtitles: German
Producer: KA21 GmbH / CastYourArt
Production crew: Wolfgang Haas, Helmut Feier
Production country: Austria, Vienna