Anchan/Anna Daučíková
Anchan/Anna Daučíková, Prague, 14 October 2025
“We were searching for islands of criticism.”
“One could refer to Anchan/Anna Daučíková as the first Czech/Slovak artist to devote herself to feminism— were it not for the fact that Daučíková’s oeuvre questions all aspects of this supposedly simple formulation. Who can lay claim to having been first?” The archive of documenta 14 sketches out quite well how skepticism toward categories and categorizations constitutes a highly significant driving force behind the work of this artist. And in the present conversation, too, she shows a clear desire not to be squeezed into any schemes such as those of identity, despite—or precisely because of—how readily the “transgender” label tends to be mentioned with reference to her person. Daučíková speaks about formative years spent in 1980s Moscow, about the deceptive transparency of her favorite material glass, about heroines in exhausted societies … and she goes on to question whether artists truly have it easier under capitalism than under the Soviet regime.
“We were searching for islands of criticism.”
“One could refer to Anchan/Anna Daučíková as the first Czech/Slovak artist to devote herself to feminism— were it not for the fact that Daučíková’s oeuvre questions all aspects of this supposedly simple formulation. Who can lay claim to having been first?” The archive of documenta 14 sketches out quite well how skepticism toward categories and categorizations constitutes a highly significant driving force behind the work of this artist. And in the present conversation, too, she shows a clear desire not to be squeezed into any schemes such as those of identity, despite—or precisely because of—how readily the “transgender” label tends to be mentioned with reference to her person. Daučíková speaks about formative years spent in 1980s Moscow, about the deceptive transparency of her favorite material glass, about heroines in exhausted societies … and she goes on to question whether artists truly have it easier under capitalism than under the Soviet regime.