She's Gone: Prague exhibit displays clothes of domestic violence victims

An exhibition in protest of violence against women opened in the Czech Chamber of Deputies Monday, presenting victims of gender-related violence through their clothes. The initiative originates from an artistic installation coming from Israel, which has been on display in various cities across the world and is gradually adding new exhibits.

The installation in Prague will include a dress that belonged to Simona Monyova, a Czech writer who was killed by her husband in Brno in 2011.

Through personal stories, the authors highlight the issue of 47,000 women and girls being annually murdered by their partners or relatives worldwide. Each of the pieces of clothing on display carries the story of a woman, often a mother, who fell victim to violence. Each piece bears information about the date of the death, the way the woman was murdered, and the length of the sentence for those of the perpetrators who were punished for the crime.

The lower house premises hosting the installation are filled with the sounds of lullabies sung by women in various languages.

The author of the exhibition is Israeli documentary filmmaker Keren Goldstein Yehezkeli and the team linked to the project She's Gone. It has reached Prague thanks to the Israeli embassy and the Women for Women organization and is held under the aegis of Czech lower house chairwoman Markéta Pekarová Adamová and parliament member Michal Zuna.

The author told ČTK how the exhibition was created in Israel. Before the victims' families provided the clothes to her, she met with them repeatedly to win their confidence. The people she spoke to were sometimes surviving mothers, sometimes daughters.

Originally, Goldstein Yehezkelin hoped to present the exhibition in a secondary school near her place of residence and did not expect the installation to take on an international dimension. At present, she hopes to present the exhibition at the UN headquarters in two or three years. By then, the installation might comprise not 22 but up to 200 pieces of clothes, she said.