5 board games by Kateřina Šedá, printed paper boxes. Each of the games is based on its position in a chronological series of images of various events as part of this five-year project
purchased 2018 with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture
This set of five games was created as part of the five-year Bedřichovice upon Thames project which involved 80 people from the ordinary Moravian village of Bedřichovice in a range of multi-layered activities; the project not only brought the community together, but also gave rise to a range of outputs such as a new village festival, the renaming of the village as Bedřichovice upon Thames (and the creation of English versions of its street names), and the creation of a previously lacking village square incorporating typical features of London public spaces – red phone boxes and double-decker buses. These are the physical imprints of a project dating back to 2011, when Kateřina Šedá was approached by the Tate Modern gallery in London to create a novel format for reviving social ties and community activities in the village. The project emerged as Šedá’s direct response to her observation that the inhabitants of the village lived largely isolated lives, lacking mutual interaction with and knowledge of each other. As part of a happening at the Tate Modern, 80 people from Bedřichovice were invited to travel to the gallery in London, where they re-enacted a normal Saturday just as they would spend it in their home village. By decontextualizing their activities and situating them in a neutral environment, Šedá helped to strengthen community ties – resulting in a range of community activities that emerged from the project.
The Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava is funded by the Moravian-Silesian Region.
