Everywhere a Wanderer / Všude poutníkem
The College Arts + Humanities Institute is delighted to present an exhibition of collage works and poetry by Professor Emerita Bronislava Volková. Join us at the Gayle Karch Cook Center on November 8 for an artist talk by Volková, followed by a reception. The exhibition will be on view at Cook Center from November 1 – November 25.
Bronislava Volková (b. 1946) is a Czech poet, artist, translator, and Professor Emerita of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Indiana University Bloomington. She received her M.A. in Russian and Spanish from Charles University in 1969. Though she earned her doctorate in Slavic linguistics a year later, she was barred from defending her dissertation after refusing to enter the Communist Party. She instead chose to leave Czechoslovakia, becoming exiled by the state.
Volková taught at the University of Cologne, University of Marburg, University of Virginia, and Harvard University before landing at IU in 1982, where she directed the university’s Czech program for 30 years. She has now returned to Prague and continues to publish her poetry bilingually. Her most recent collection, Where Everyone Leaves, Never to Return / Kde všichni odcházejí a už se nevrací, was released in 2023.
Exile and fragmentation are dominant themes in Volková’s work, the latter lending well to the medium of collage. 44 years as an exile have exposed Volková to a wide spectrum of experienced realities and points of view. Her collages and poems connect organically through experimental and surreal juxtaposition of reality fragments. Her work is playful, at times philosophical, and explores the interaction of different worlds. She contrasts social images with nature, dark and light visions of the world, creating imaginary countrysides in a variety of different dimensions and materials.
This exhibition and artist talk are presented by the College Arts + Humanities Institute, with generous support from the College of Arts + Sciences and the Ruth N. Halls Humanities Fund.
The College of Arts