HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF / HIDDEN BY DESIGN
Painting, text, installation. Created during residency at Duplex AIR, Lisbon. 2024.
About:
During the art residency at DUPLEX AIR in Lisbon in September 2024, Zak created works reflecting on the political climate in the country where she was born, where the cultural sector is experiencing what can be only described as a "culture of the uncultured". The government’s measures, disturbingly reminiscent of tactics used by the previous regime, raise questions about whether they’re laying the groundwork for deeper systemic shifts toward autocracy. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF is a piece painted on the cover of a book approved for publication in 1972 in communist Czechoslovakia with a purpose of creating a paradox, and was presented with a text (below).
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The project follows with a painting on canvas 'HIDDEN BY DESIGN', featuring layered backgrounds, dominated by black circular forms. The shapes hide the underlying layers, evoking a sense of intentional erasure and reflecting themes of censorship and the suppression of free expression. HIDDEN BY DESIGN reflects the idea that every structure has built-in mechanisms to obscure truths, suppress dissent, or maintain control. The title itself implies that these flaws are not just inevitable but deliberately woven into the fabric of the system to serve those in power.







