Since starting the Rainbow Garden in Kameníky by Kyjov, I have had two more opportunities to work on smaller variants of thematic flower beds in gallery contexts. In both cases, they are galleries which have large adjacent gardens that is maintained by gallery staff, so at least in theory the plantings should have some duration. For Schaubnar Mill of the Slovak National Gallery, I have chosen to work with national cultural imagery that is reflected even in the names of iris and rose varieties. I named the project Rare Blend: A Gallery of Slovak Cultural Myths and combined names of iris varieties (bred by Anton Mego) that refer to geographic locations or imagery of subjects tied to them (Mount Gerlach, Tatra’s Eagle, Bratislavan Prince), to pop culture or historical legends (Slovak Tango, Song of Fatima), or to imagery evoking national identity (True Patriot). The names referring to the legend from the times of the Turk wars (Song of Fatima, etc.) led me to the idea to find more varieties referring to the oriental culture (acknowledging the exotification factor) in order to create in the flower bed a model of peaceful coexistence of the two cultures. Thus Kalifa’s Robe or Arabian Archer (by different breeders) found their way into the flower bed, too. To complement the iris plantings, I also included some rose varieties which their breeders (Sylvester Gÿory, Havel, and Vladiír Ježovič) have given names that commemorate some historical events (typically traumatic) or personae or locations important in modern Slovak history. I found a rose called Cantilena Slovenica, a rose called after a reformist PM Alexander Dubček who tried to resist the Soviet occupation in 1968, or a rose called after the journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, who were murdered by the Fico regime in 2018. The installation was opened in 2024, in which year I was asked by the then-director Veronika Němcová to added a queer-themed iris bed as well. For this one, I color-coded it in stripes representing the trans flag. My artworks and artworks by other artists in the garden were planned to be included in the orientation system on which the SNG graphic designers were working, but since the Minister of Culture Martina Šimkovičová has started completely dismantling the institution in August 2024, works on all projects have stopped and seventy key employees (about one third) resigned in January 2025, including most staff at the Schaubnar Mill. Whether my garden installation will be further maintained is a trivial concern in the light of the desolation that the Fico government is laying in its wake.
