From Post-communist Nostalgia to a Post-socialist Sociality: Katerina Seda's Relational Screens

Taking as its starting point the concept of "post-communist nostalgia," introduced by Maria Todorova and Zsuzsa Gille in 2010 as a way of rethinking the way in which the residents of Eastern Europe manage the memory of the past after the fall of communism, this article offers an analysis of three installations by the Czech artist Katerina Seda (born 1977): It Doesn't Matter (2005-2007), There's Nothing There (2003) and Bedrichovice Upon Thames (2011-2015). The growing social isolation seen since 1989, visible in particular in the rising number of divorces and one-child families, as well as in the height of fences in the villages, etc, is Seda's main source of inspiration in the creation of social installations in collaboration with her "protagonists." Employing different screens as a communication and relational interface, Seda "shows people to other people" and, in a manner both artless and persuasive, reminds us of the importance of the physical co-presence of individuals for a life in common and a new sociality.