The Children of Jan Mokso

The exhibition project titled The children of Jan Mokso deals with the issue of sexual abuse of children by the Church presented through the stories of my mother and her cousin. In the 60s, Juliana Némethová and Gizela Szitásová were sexually abused by a priest during and after their preparations for the First Communion. The exhibition project is divided into four parts – three of which were physically presented during the exhibition, the fourth part is a website. The first part comprises of a ladder that was used by the performer to reach the space under the roof  to sing the excerpt of Luke’s gospel: “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” In the second part, the performer tried to come up with past and establish eye contact with Jan Mokso – the priest responsible for the abuse’s marble head. That is, however, impossible as the priest’s eyes are closed, just like the eyes that the Church keeps closed when such incidents happen. The story gets more specific in the third part where the audience listens to my mother’s and her cousin’s testimonies. In the room behind the pink curtains, the historical photographs of the First Communion were revealing.