Je suis aussi étrangère /en/

Jaroslava Šicková-Fabrici

Statua Gallery, Pállfy Palace, Zámocká 47, Bratislava, Slovakia
March 1 – 23, 2016

If we talk about travelling abroad, participating in artist-in-residence programs connected with the chance to display my artwork and to present my approach to art therapy, the years 2014 and 2015 have been very rich.
After the exhibitions in Adam Hall Gallery at Wheaton College in Chicago (July 2014), in Monastero Santa Marta in Florence, Italy (October 2014), in Spectrum Care in Auckland, New Zealand (March 2015), in Royal Queensland Art Society Gallery in Australia (April 2015), in Danish Billund Art-Therapy Center (April 2015), and also, in Jan Hus Church in Prague, the Czech Republic (September – October 2015) Je suis étrangère.
I  will finally present my artwork in my hometown Bratislava, Slovakia where I was born and where I live all my life.
The title of the exhibition is this time Je suis aussi étrangère (I am also a foreigner, a pilgrim) offers many interpretations – one of them is that sometimes I feel more like a stranger in my home-country than abroad…
My artwork has been inspired not only by the journeys to unknown foreign countries but mainly by the issues of today´s world influenced by violence and refugee crisis.
At the exhibition, one can find my artworks in stone, wood, clay, and glass but also collages and installations for the creation of which I have used original handwritings of people I met during my life journey – people of different age, nationalities and various problems they faced. The most frequently present are the letters written by an autistic boy who wrote them to me during 15 years when I was working with him in art therapy.

The motto of this exhibition is: “We are pilgrims, strangers on Earth…” (Bible, Hebrews 11:13) and also the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

During the vernissage, the new edition of my book Basic art therapy (Publishing House Portal, Prague, the Czech Republic, 2016) will be introduced.

Jaroslava Šicková-Fabrici