YOUR BLOOD / MY ROSES
29. 5. 2026 - 12. 7. 2026
At her solo exhibition, distinctive photographer Bet Orten presents a multifaceted installation unveiling fragments of women’s experience, the imprints of trauma in the body, and the correlations between corporeal structures and landscape. The artist brings to light what often remains hidden: fear, shame, inner shadows, but also the strength and capability to face incidents of life creatively and in the spirit of emancipation. In her photographs, Bet mostly portrays one or several staged female bodies in a natural environment, which serves as a counterpoint, a source of complexity, but also as an open field of possibilities. The depicted figures do not represent specific individuals, but rather reflect aspects of the artist’s own soul, her autobiographical fragments. The exhibition title refers to Bet’s severe traumatic experience from her childhood, when she witnessed her closest person’s self-harm and existential vulnerability. Building on this experience, the artist explores the residues of trauma piling in the body and memory, and the possible ways of its transformation through images. Blood stains on the floor, resembling rose petals, fittingly capture the essence of Bet’s work: beauty is never shallow; it emanates from complex inner processes that embrace darkness but also the possibility to collect the shards of what was broken and reassemble them into a new, authentic and powerful self. It is thus not the trauma as such, but the long process of freeing one’s soul, healing, and renewing that forms the pivotal point of the exhibition.
Bet Orten’s works are presented in an atmospheric installation that tests the possibilities and expands the limits of photography as a medium. The exhibited pieces include monumental prints on textile as well as intimate formats or photographic objects. The viewers are drawn in media res, where they can not only uncover images of the artist’s inner mythology, but also glimpse stories and fragments of their own physical and mental experience.
Curator: Karina Kottová
Production: Johanka Pošová
Assistance: Barbora Prade
Graphic design: Anna Gutová
Acknowledgements: Jan Barta, Matěj Hájek, Kateřina Papežová, Markéta Musilová, Lucie Urban, Eliška Lubojatzka, Barbora Musilová, Jakub Kolek, Marek Malis, Tereza Porybná