The photographs Parne grastura (White Horses) consist of two large-scale images in a slightly larger-than-life format. They depict two Romani men riding white horses, dressed in vivid, colorful garments. The scale of the photographs enhances the sense of physical presence and the immediacy of the encounter.

The figures are not staged as victims nor positioned in opposition to mainstream society, but presented as autonomous subjects of their own identity and pride. The men portrayed are two brothers, Oto and Mário. I met one of them during the realization of an artistic activation program at Bělušice Prison; today, he is fortunately free. It was important to me that they not appear as mere extras, but that they speak through their own authenticity.

The photographs consciously work with cultural codes and transform them into an emancipatory image. The motif of riding a horse becomes a symbol of resistance and an attempt to disrupt racial hierarchies. The work connects historical experiences of racial oppression with their contemporary forms—such as nationalism, institutional violence, and the functioning of the criminal justice system—revealing the persistence of these mechanisms in today’s society.

A specific role is played by the term “white horse,” which in Czech criminal-law slang refers to a person used as a proxy or scapegoat—formally the perpetrator, yet simultaneously a victim. This paradox, in which perpetrator and victim coexist within a single figure, becomes a key interpretative framework of the work.