"Laying Diapers, Loving Nature: Maternity as a Private Act and Political Gesture"@en . . . "Laying Diapers, Loving Nature: Maternity as a Private Act and Political Gesture" . . . . "25787" . . "RIV/60461071:_____/14:#0000365" . "Performative Gestures, Political Moves" . . "978-953-6955-48-0" . . "1"^^ . "In 1970, one of the first and most active women performers in former Czechoslovakia, Zorka S\u00E1glov\u00E1 (1942\u20132003), realized an original happening entitled Laying Diapers in which she laid hundreds of snow-white cotton diapers on a meadow near Sudomerice, Southern Bohemia. While working with a ready-made material that is an integral part of any infant\u2019s early life, and an attribute of mothers\u2019 domestic duties (taking care of the child, washing laundry...), she made her \u201Cmaternal\u201D imprint into the landscape. The outdoor dimension of this project which resulted in a monumental land-art piece suggested escape of the mother from the private sphere to the open, in this case boundless space; at the same time, it expanded the motherly love from a child to the entire nature. The text discusses the artistic and political context of this happening on the background of the practical as well as symbolic role of mothers and maternity during the Communist era. Also, it demonstrates that since performance art and happenings were considered a potential source of civil disobedience by the state apparatchiks of that time and, as such, belonged to the sphere of unofficial and \u201Cverboten\u201D art, their meaning and legacy differs from similarly intimate and in a way romantic and lyrical projects realized by women performance artists in the West. The \u201CEastern\u201D maternity was, I want to argue, a much more political and politicized subject than it was in the Western feminist agenda where images of mothers (especially when related to nature) were seen as examples of uncritical essentialism." . . . "8"^^ . "Laying Diapers, Loving Nature: Maternity as a Private Act and Political Gesture" . "Zagreb" . "In 1970, one of the first and most active women performers in former Czechoslovakia, Zorka S\u00E1glov\u00E1 (1942\u20132003), realized an original happening entitled Laying Diapers in which she laid hundreds of snow-white cotton diapers on a meadow near Sudomerice, Southern Bohemia. While working with a ready-made material that is an integral part of any infant\u2019s early life, and an attribute of mothers\u2019 domestic duties (taking care of the child, washing laundry...), she made her \u201Cmaternal\u201D imprint into the landscape. The outdoor dimension of this project which resulted in a monumental land-art piece suggested escape of the mother from the private sphere to the open, in this case boundless space; at the same time, it expanded the motherly love from a child to the entire nature. The text discusses the artistic and political context of this happening on the background of the practical as well as symbolic role of mothers and maternity during the Communist era. Also, it demonstrates that since performance art and happenings were considered a potential source of civil disobedience by the state apparatchiks of that time and, as such, belonged to the sphere of unofficial and \u201Cverboten\u201D art, their meaning and legacy differs from similarly intimate and in a way romantic and lyrical projects realized by women performance artists in the West. The \u201CEastern\u201D maternity was, I want to argue, a much more political and politicized subject than it was in the Western feminist agenda where images of mothers (especially when related to nature) were seen as examples of uncritical essentialism."@en . "1"^^ . . "248"^^ . . . . . "[C265E670CF5E]" . "gender; Eastern Europe; socialism; inofficial art; maternity; body; land art; performance; Zorka S\u00E1glov\u00E1"@en . . "Pachmanov\u00E1, Martina" . "RIV/60461071:_____/14:#0000365!RIV15-MSM-60461071" . "Laying Diapers, Loving Nature: Maternity as a Private Act and Political Gesture"@en . . "V" . . . . "Red Athena University Press" .