Why work? / accompanying program to the exhibition (S)měna

"Everyone is working, has worked, is about to work, or at least knows someone who is working. Work, a self-evident concept, allows for different interpretations. Work ennobles, work exploits. Work can be paid or unpaid, certain or uncertain, fulfilling or enervating, clean or dirty, prestigious or despised." These are the words with which sociologist Kateřina Nedbálková introduces her latest book to date, Pracovat (Display 2023). In the course of interviews, she reveals the life stories of ten men and women working in a variety of occupations, highlighting the various forms of contemporary work and the dramatic changes, both substantive and formal, that it has undergone in recent years. The results of her current research in this field will be presented in a lecture, which will be followed by the launch of the catalogue for the exhibition (S)měna and a guided tour with its author and the artists represented on Thursday 20 March at 6 pm at Pragovka Gallery.

Sociologist Kateřina Nedbálková works at Masaryk University in Brno. Her research focuses on gender issues and the sociology of work. She sees sociology as the science of people who are part of relationships, organisations and structures that transcend them. She is the author of Spoutaná Rozkoš: (re)konstrukce genderu a sexuality v ženské věznici (SLON 2006), Matky kuráže: lesbické a gay rodičovství v pozdně moderní společnosti (SLON 2010), Tichá dřina: dělnictví a třída v továrně Baťa (Display 2021) and Pracovat (Display 2023).