"be a good girl"

INSTALLATION | 2026

At the center of the installation stands a decaying replica of a communist-era armchair common to many post-socialist households: a collapsing throne of a father. The chair becomes a symbol shaped by the legacy of the regime and its inherited values.

"be a good girl" is an audiovisual installation that examine paternal authority as a structure sustained through fear, silence, and emotional inheritance.

Rooted in personal memory, the work questions how care, discipline, and control become entangled to the point where fear is mistaken for respect. The repeated word “poslúchaj” (“obey,” “behave” in Slovak) becomes a mechanism through which silence and emotional suppression are inherited across generations.

The installation reflects on inherited masculinity, emotional repression, and the lingering effects of an authority that cannot be questioned.

photography and video: Barbara Gocníková