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Per Jonos Storsve<br />
JA]IA SIERBIK<br />
I long lot the lond thot is nol-<br />
A strange right contronted the visitor to the 1990 Venice Bjennale. A young woman was d.iving up<br />
and down the.entral aisle of the old ropeworks in a peculiar machine: a metal crinoline on wheels.<br />
A man was walking behind her with a remote control unit, which not only controlled the machine<br />
but also lent its name to the title oJ lhe work: Remote Contro/. This was Europet fkst encount€r<br />
with the work ofthe Canadian artist.,ana <strong>Sterbak</strong>.<br />
<strong>Jana</strong> <strong>Sterbak</strong>, originally Starb6kov6, was born in Prague in 1955. In 1958, at th€ age oI thirteen, she<br />
emigrated to Canada with her family. she left Central Europe and a thousand-year-old culture to settle<br />
in a'young" .ountry whose history seen {rom a European peEpective, seems incredibly shon. Her<br />
nativ€ Catholic tradition was replaced by Proteitantism, and she not only en@untered a new language<br />
and a new culture, but also a new poljtical system. Having grown up in a Marxist-Leninin society she<br />
was confronted with a political ideology which was diametrically opposed to the values with which she<br />
had been tostered within the czech school system. In h€r own words: "Growing up in Czechoslovakia<br />
our school curiculum included Ma ism and Leninism. when I came to live in the West it was anusing<br />
to watch the.omplete reve6al of the values which were the foundationt of ny childhood." 11)<br />
These basic biographical details and (onfrontations, political, cultural, religious, linguistic and tocial,<br />
are extremely important, because they contribute to the illumination of an oeuvre which consists of<br />
many layers, and which in reality is far l€ss unambiguousthan is immediately apparent.<br />
Th€ whole of<strong>Jana</strong> <strong>Sterbak</strong>'s oelvre it anchored in the memory of Prague. lt is a tribute to a culture and<br />
history which includes medieval mlthr, tolk taler, the horroB of the Thirty Years' war as well as the<br />
writeB Franz Ka{ka, Karel Cap€k and.,aroslav Ha;€k. Not only did The Good Soldier Schweyk and<br />
Joteph K hail from Prague; this city, called the "magical capital o{ Old Europe" by And16 Breton was<br />
rEdirh 5oderqran, rhe r..d lhat^Nor,1922<br />
17
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