The exhibition Behind the Counter at Telegraph Gallery links memories of the Woman Behind the Counter series with current debates about gender, work and women's visibility in society. Through painting and scenographic installation, three artists, Adéla Janská, Paulina Olowska and Caroline Walker, revisit a phenomenon that for many evokes strong memories and contradictory reactions.
The series, which became a symbol of socialism in Czechoslovakia, idealised the female workforce in a business environment. Saleswomen were women "in their place" in the regime's work and social structure. This archetype became so strong that it survived the times that created it and became part of the collective memory. The exhibition takes this iconography as a starting point and reinterprets and problematizes it.
In its time, the series was an ideological tool. Its protagonist was presented as a modern socialist woman. She was strong, hard-working, dedicated and, to some extent, emancipated, but always within the limits that the regime deemed desirable. Genuine subjectivity and autonomous female aspirations were largely suppressed in favour of symbols of the mother of the nation, the comrade or the worker. This image was marketingly effective, serving as a form of propaganda for the regime and showing a model of the woman who was securely anchored in her pro-socialist role.
Women artists translate this historical experience into the present. Their works not only commemorate but actively expand the discussion. Olowska draws on the social and political history of pop culture and feminism. Walker maps everyday experience at the workplace, and Janska works with psychological portraiture in her paintings.
The exhibition Behind the Counter thus functions not only as a nostalgic remembrance and critical reinterpretation of cultural heritage, but is important precisely because of the questions that still weigh on us today. The role of women at work is still burdened by inequalities, both in terms of pay and unpaid domestic work.
If you are interested in this topic, you can come to the screening of the first episode of this series, followed by a lecture by Anna Rufer Bílá from the Department of Television and Radio at Palacký University.
5 2 2026 / 18:00 Series The Woman Behind the Counter & The (Un)Realism of Normalization Television
