Clauda is delighted to present the exhibition Heriot by the artist duo Jakub Hájek & František Hanousek, featuring an accompanying text by jen kratochvil.

A heriot (from Old English heregeatwe, “Military equipment”) was a feudal death duty: upon the death of a subject, the lord claimed his armor, his best horse, or his clothing. Hájek and Hanousek have created hand-woven suits of chain mail using copper, brass, and steel wire and hung them on a tall wooden rack as if they are surrendered geart. But the suits of armor are not empty. Colorful knitted lungs and hearts are visible through their translucent chests, and decorative tasseled cords dangle from the sleeves. They are like something between armor, clothing, and an anatomical model: equipment that can be taken off and surrendered but retains pieces of the body within. This slow, obsessive work, which the duo themselves describe as “the transition from psychic woodiness to psychic metallicity,” takes on a literal form here: the wood supports, the metal breathes. The exhibition is complemented by abstract drawings depicting the first-person perspectives of two figures lying in beds as if weighed down by gravity.

Bio

Jakub Hájek and František Hanousek (both b. 1994) are an artist duo who studied at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and subsequently in the Intermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where Hanousek graduated in 2021 and Hájek in 2023. Their work focuses on intermedia installations, objects, and exhibition architecture. They recently exhibited together with Jiří Skála at Hunt Kastner in Prague (Five Peaks of Luxury, curated by Vít Novák and Anežka Chalupová, 2026). They have had solo exhibitions at institutions such as MeetFactory / Kostka Gallery in Prague (Honour Glands, 2025), the Winterberg Gallery in Vimperk (2025), Future Suburban Contemporary in Copenhagen (2022), Holešovická šachta in Prague (Carnival of the Rabble: Dissolved Destinies, 2021), and the C. Rockefeller Center for Contemporary Arts in Dresden (Migraine Acuity, 2020). They have also participated in group exhibitions such as Early Spring: A Garden of Small Gestures in the Empire Greenhouse at Prague Castle (curated by Vít Novák, 2026), History Will Not Save Us at Display in Prague (curated by Eva Skopalová, 2025), and To the Bottom of the Goblet at AQB in Budapest (2024). They also design exhibition architecture and were nominated for the Startpoint Award in 2021.