In Autumn 2016 the Czech artist Eva Kot'átková spent two weeks at the Kunsthaus KAT18 in Cologne, where people with a mental handicap and artistic talent are able to work. There she noticed that the artists often work with their own body and its parts. So together they came up with the idea for an »Office for eyes, nose, tongue, mouth, hand, heart and mask (that covers it all)«. The location is a room that looks like a normal office with tables, chairs and lamps. The participating artists have established rules for this office, where eyes, nose, tongue, mouth, hand, heart and mask actively encounter the exhibited drawings, objects and costumes: the mouth sings the weather forecast, the eye issues certificates, while the hand is at one time a means of stroking and at others an alarmingly frightening appendage. The result is a surreal space, in which everyday official actions characterized by routine and lack of imagination, but also intimidation, are transformed with humour and empathy into an unpredictable adventure.

The »Office for eyes, nose, tongue, mouth, hand, heart and mask (that covers it all)« is one of the exhibitions in a series addressing our theme of the year, »Me in a no-time state« – Über das Individuum. The project is curated by Jutta Pöstges and Noemi Smolik and will be continued in the Museum Kampa in Prague at the end of next year.

Eva Kot’átková (b. 1982, lives and works in Prague) exhibited at the Modern Art Oxford,UK and Kunstverein Braunschweig in 2013; at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin in 2014; at the Juan Miró Foundation, Barcelona and MIT List Visual Art’s Center, Cambridge, Massachussets in 2015 and at Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld in 2016. In 2013 she took part in the 55th Venice Biennale. In 2014 she was awarded the Bonn Dorothea von Stetten Art Award.

The Kunsthaus KAT18 in Cologne is an art space with studios, a project room and a gallery with a coffee bar. Artistic and cultural processes are promoted with the aim of improving the living conditions of the artists in the studio collective within the community at large. Exhibition participations at the Bundeskunsthalle, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kolumba, etc.