The Czech Visual Art Foundation Mánes
„Legal doesn’t always have to be legitimate“
A relevant episode of our critical programme deals with the state of The Czech Visual Art Foundation and with recent (and still in progress) initiatives of art community aiming to find a meaningful way out of the current alarming situation of not only the above mentioned institution.
The building SVU Mánes in Prague has embodied unfortunate socially-political events and processes. It was established in the 1930s to serve to a wide spectrum of artists and artistic activities but it has been currently treated in a completely unprecedented way resulting from unclear intentions of a very limited and impervious group of people.
The documentary tries to clarify the history of the Visual Artists Union Mánes and the Czech Visual Art Fund with stress primarily on privatization and transformation period in the 1990s. At the same time it also documents activities of artists and theoreticians united in the initiative Mánes for Artists who are not indifferent to a completely illegitimate way of treating the cultural heritage.
The documentary shows the art community struggle for its rights but it might also be regarded as a case study of hasty changes that occurred in the Czech society and politics during the 1990s and affected our culture and society for a long time.
- The Mánes building, currently administered by the Czech Visual Art Foundation00:02:41.338
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- (previously the Visual Art Fund), has become a symbol of the negative consequences00:02:45.327
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- of culture privatisation in the past twenty years.00:02:50.463
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- In the nineties, the legal actions taken over its ownership00:02:55.194
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- resulted in victory for a purpose-built law interpretation over justice.00:02:59.057
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- Under the Foundation, the commercialisation of the gallery's operation00:03:04.804
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- lacked any artistic targets or concern for the quality of the exhibition programme and other activities.00:03:08.923
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- It proceeded as such, owing to the art community's total resignation00:03:16.377
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- to the presented ideals of union life.00:03:22.028
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- A relatively wide spectrum of the art community were unprecedentedly activated,00:03:27.768
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- and via a new initiative called 'Mánes for Artists', a strong appeal was launched.00:03:32.929
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- It required a redress of all the mistakes caused by the general lack of interest00:03:42.536
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- in potentially common, public issues; and for full responsibility to be taken for their state.00:03:47.784
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- In a very short space of time, the initiative's manifesto was signed and supported by 250 people.00:03:54.607
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- The situation with Mánes' unfunctional exhibition hall and Czech Visual Art Foundation00:04:05.601
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- stimulated an irritated demonstration regarding the state of society; institutions;00:04:12.203
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- the culture policy; and once public, denationalised property.00:04:18.622
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- I think artists' discontent with cultural institutions and the Ministry of culture00:04:23.618
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- has been present for a long time, and the urge00:04:30.929
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- to open the Mánes case again allowed us to also discuss union life and what we have lost.00:04:38.481
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- Mánes hasn't carried out any of its functions for a very long time.00:04:49.037
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- It doesn't create a platform or background for visual art presentation and the life it should meet.00:04:53.883
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- The foundation operates only as an estate agency, leasing the place.00:05:03.651
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- It sometimes appears as-though something is going on there, but it's someone else who is paying for it.00:05:08.805
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- The foundation administration is legal, but not legitimate. Its operation in the past 20 years has proven00:05:14.848
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- to be inappropriate property administration. We consider it non-legitimate.00:05:28.766
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- Of course, we understand that the law provides them with the right to administer their property in any way they prefer,00:05:36.724
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- but we want them to consider possessing and managing something legitimately,00:05:45.124
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- and with respect for public and art platforms; as well as just legally.00:05:53.166
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- The 'Mánes for Artists' initiative wasn't the only attempt00:06:18.161
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- in post-revolution history to point out the very problematic transformation,00:06:23.547
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- and subsequent administration, of the Czech Visual Art Foundation.00:06:29.834
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- To better understand the lengthy case that emerged after 1989,00:06:34.204
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- it's important to go back; not only to the pre-revolution operation of the Czech Visual Art Fund;00:06:39.082
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- but also to the situation created by the Mánes Union of Artists,00:06:47.110
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- from 1948 to its disputed abolition in the 1950s.00:06:52.851
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- It's very complicated and I'm not very knowledgeable about the 1950s,00:07:00.484
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- but as we've taken care of the case since its beginning after 1990;00:07:07.817
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- and as we used to have residence in Mánes next to the Mánes Union; we could look into it00:07:17.928
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- - but you'd better ask the Mánes Union because they went to court.00:07:25.167
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- Although they lost the case, it even made it to the Supreme Court based on the fact that all unions were abolished in 1956,00:07:31.053
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- and the abolishments should have been signed by the minister of culture of the time,00:07:46.819
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- but the Mánes Union was the only one that didn't have the paper signed by the minister.00:07:52.489
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- There wasn't a signature, so the Union protested vehemently. The former chairman of the Union, Jaroslav Fragner,00:07:58.694
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- protested to the minister about the property sequestration and Union liquidation.00:08:09.188
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- All the funds - literary, music, theatre, and art - were established in the 1950s.00:08:21.842
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- This may sound a bit heretical, but they were very well operated institutions,00:08:33.265
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- based on a good principle in favour of artists. I was employed there for many years00:08:47.278
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- before the revolution, so I could see into their activities from the inside.00:08:56.271
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- The initial Fund of Czech Visual Artists was a trade union in a way,00:09:02.450
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- and at the same time a business concern. The ideological part, that created the issues00:09:12.010
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- we all had reservations about, was held by the Association of Czechoslovakian Visual Artists00:09:20.874
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- and the Association of Czech Visual Artists. All the art funds were a certain state inside a state.00:09:31.543
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- All artists and theorists were deducted 3 percent from their charges by copyright protection,00:09:42.224
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- and the money went to the funds.00:09:55.452
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- When I worked there, the fund was directed by engineer, Stepanovský00:09:57.864
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- - who wasn't a member of the Communist Party - and the fund operated at several levels.00:10:03.690
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- Firstly, there were scholarships that would assure living art today:00:10:11.893
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- the scholarships were granted to artists after their graduation.00:10:26.453
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- There were also creative grants for several years. Artworks were bought from artists00:10:31.831
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- and as the fund became gradually rich, it purchased many properties,00:10:41.191
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- including a hotel in Karlovy Vary, two villas in Staré Splavy, a villa in Ceské Budejovice, a hunting lodge near Jihlava...00:10:53.618
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- The Fund also created so-called 'art commissions' that were on the one hand very bad,00:11:08.398
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- but important for those in the membership. Today it would be quite convenient00:11:19.530
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- because it secured professionalism and provided income for the artists.00:11:26.170
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- The Fund had a very positive role in the revolution00:11:38.923
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- as it provided a background for the entirety of the Mánes and art communities.00:11:44.575
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- Everything that was photocopied there, all the posters, all the phone calls...00:11:51.661
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- everything that took place in Mánes was arranged by the Fund.00:11:57.616
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- Shortly after the revolution, the Union of Artists claimed it,00:12:42.161
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- and twenty-two so-called members or refounders announced the continuation of its activity.00:12:48.150
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- Via its renewed activity, the Union started enforcing the right for restitution of the confiscated property.00:12:55.861
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- Its opacity, with reference to its termination in the 1950s, served as a surprisingly00:13:04.182
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- fundamental argument in the lawsuit between the Mánes Union and the Visual Art Fund:00:13:10.713
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- later the Czech Visual Art Foundation.00:13:17.384
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- The twenty-two members of the Union then nominated young artists and architects they were close to,00:13:22.504
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- and thus the twenty-two expanded to a hundred or a hundred and fifteen.00:13:34.781
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- So the Union was interesting because it was cross-generational.00:13:46.823
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- There were ninety-year-old respectable visual artists together with the thirty-year-old ones,00:13:55.200
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- so there were generational discussions and the Union was very active in the beginning.00:14:05.896
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- The meetings were well attended, as were the discussion nights that took place there...00:14:13.367
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- Since 1992 the Mánes Union exhibition was held there every year00:14:20.643
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- and the fund would lend the exhibition space to the Union for free, for one month...00:14:29.071
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- The Foundation, sorry the Fund, treated the Union relatively helpfully and said they would give back the building00:14:37.234
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- and that they were just looking for a way to do it. It wasn't the whole board of administration:00:14:50.813
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- many representatives of the board said that the Union had to get the building back itself.00:14:56.734
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- The problem was the social pressure when union life was revived.00:15:04.415
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- Colleagues from Mánes stood up for the Mánes tradition and longed to reclaim the building ownership.00:15:14.132
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- It didn't appear wrong to me, rather the contrary,00:15:23.676
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- but the problem was the legal aspect. The Foundation couldn't simply say they would give it to them00:15:28.232
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- because it would make the other five thousand registered artists feel they were being deprived of something...00:15:35.074
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- Nothing happened, and after four years of waiting the Union pressed charges to determine the owner,00:15:45.908
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- and the (at many instances unbearable) judicial cycle began. It went through everyone,00:15:57.018
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- then it all started again on three instances until they made their decision after ten years...00:16:03.098
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- It's interesting to follow the issue from the view of the Foundation,00:16:09.039
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- who applied three types of defence to their web. The first said that the Mánes Union consisted of people00:16:14.563
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- who were supporters of the previous regime: they weren't dissidents, on the contrary00:16:33.012
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- they cooperated with the regime. The question is to what extent the Union is responsible for their00:16:40.711
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- post-war members. As we all know, the Czech culture platform used to be mainly left-wing,00:16:47.349
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- so artists were no exception. Their participation after 1948 is disagreeable,00:16:53.956
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- but it wouldn't surprise me that much...00:17:04.390
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- This is written on the Foundation website, it's one of their recent attacks...00:17:07.298
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- It says that many members of the Mánes Union became active members of the Association: consequently the Fund...00:17:12.561
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- - but that was true of everyone in the country in the unbearable 1950s.00:17:20.776
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- Many artists, not only union members, worked actively in the Association. Many of them were soon found out00:17:29.421
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- and expelled, many of them never joined, and some of them were imprisoned.00:17:39.978
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- It was stratified in the whole society, so it applied to the Mánes Union as well.00:17:45.858
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- Another argument was that they didn't build it from their own money, which was generally known in fact...00:17:52.070
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- They mentioned that the price of it - the building cost - climbed00:17:59.787
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- from 7 to 10 million: which wasn't a small sum of money at that time.00:18:07.403
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- The state contributed a million, the president Masaryk 200 000 crowns, Rothschild helped too...00:18:15.669
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- - but there was also a debt that should have been paid off in 1956.00:18:24.062
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- This argument is interesting because the Mánes Union was ready to settle the debt,00:18:31.998
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- and that's why they decided to make part of the project a bit commercial...00:18:42.727
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- The third reason they used in defence, was of an administratively-legal base:00:18:49.736
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- they said the Mánes Union resisted the abolition insufficiently.00:18:56.921
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- The judicial decision said that the Union's dissolution or abolishment was valid by law,00:19:01.467
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- because there wasn't a guarantee that it would contribute to building socialism;00:19:11.120
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- and because the Union didn't prove their contribution; the judicial decision was valid.00:19:16.790
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- That was one reason, and the other was that the Union didn't show any continuity of existence00:19:25.743
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- - but the Union itself never dissolved, they just wouldn't meet regularly,00:19:37.091
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- wouldn't organise plenary sessions and unfortunately, wouldn't make exhibitions; because if they00:19:44.183
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- had made them, they would have been in trouble for carrying out subversive activities.00:19:50.565
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- When we went to the last negotiation, we were ready to collect the keys to the building00:19:58.651
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- but found that the case was being returned to another hearing by the Supreme Court; and the shock was even bigger when we were told00:20:07.084
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- that the Mánes Union had no rights, and the building remained the property of the Foundation.00:20:14.400
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- The situation was absurd because in the early nineties, when the restitution laws were made,00:20:21.392
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- there was a thesis that only individuals would be compensated.00:20:27.883
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- That meant the proprietors' descendants, or the proprietors if they were still alive.00:20:31.868
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- It was carried out in towns and with land resources,00:20:36.244
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- and as for the legal entities: they said it wasn't possible to search them out00:20:42.326
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- - but this wasn't true of course. The breakthrough came with the restitution of the Sokol organisation and DTJ:00:20:46.206
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- the Workers Gymnastic Union that was affiliated with a united physical education in the 1940s: like Sokol was.00:20:53.447
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- Their property was given back as they were legal entities that had been regenerated,00:21:02.157
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- but this applied only to culture organisations that hadn't been terminated, which means they were00:21:07.972
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- abolished incorrectly or weren't abolished at all, and they claimed their rights in due time.00:21:17.389
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- That meant that if there was a continuity of the legal entity, they could claim their property,00:21:22.844
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- and in some cases they succeeded, got it back, and their rights were restored00:21:30.199
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- - but Mánes didn't carry it out sufficiently according to the court assertion.00:21:39.595
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- It suggested that if the church was restituted in the next round, it should go to some culture organisations00:21:47.161
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- and legal entities, because the property may still exist.00:21:59.798
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- We sent a last appeal to a Constitutional Court in a different constitution than the principal one.00:22:06.322
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- The Constitutional Court upheld the Supreme Court's decision and declared that a legal injury had evidently been made.00:22:16.266
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- Nevertheless, it came about because the Mánes Union wasn't listed in the law of restitution.00:22:23.940
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- We did our best to make our way through the political intentions.00:22:35.037
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- We addressed the senator Dienstbier before the presidential candidates were promulgated.00:22:48.141
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- He was a representative in Prague, so because of his function we considered him suitable.00:22:57.635
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- Moreover, CSSD won their building back in a very similar lawsuit; although they didn't prove any continuity and lost the house;00:23:10.084
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- and although not all the social democrats joined the Communist Party...00:23:26.341
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- It was very similar.00:23:34.972
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- So we saw the senator Dienstbier, who heard us out and made sense of the whole matter;00:23:37.041
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- However, he announced his candidacy for the presidency a week later, so we had to abandon this idea.00:23:46.977
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- We thought that only a modification of the restitution law would change the situation.00:24:00.864
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- The analogy of cultural organisations, the church, and physical education organisations was in order,00:24:06.711
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- because they remained in the same state after 1945: with the exception of Sokol after 1918,00:24:13.483
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- whose status wasn't identical to the one after 1948. It didn't bear the role of a national pillar anymore.00:24:23.535
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- The problem was that nobody created a lobby for it.00:24:36.432
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- If nobody pressures effectively, the deputies won't respond and let it go.00:24:39.715
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- Effective pressure can be made on an art platform as well...00:24:49.083
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- Effective pressure is not holding a banner in a square and saying you demand something, I guess...00:24:52.376
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- The legal actions taken to ordain the owner of the confiscated property of the Mánes Visual Artists' Association,00:26:15.856
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- proceeded in parallel and independent of the Visual Art Fund's transformation into the Foundation.00:26:20.228
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- It took place over several months, on the basis of hastily enacted regulations.00:26:28.379
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- The Foundation statute was also consolidated by the law of foundations, in 1993.00:26:34.259
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- Without regard for the progress and future result of the lawsuit,00:26:42.465
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- the Foundation administered and operated the Mánes building00:26:46.296
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- together with other property conveyed from the Visual Art Fund.00:26:51.200
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- The wealthy Fund of Visual Art attracted a lot of attention, and during the transformation chaos, there were attempts00:26:56.021
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- to strip it of its assets and links with the shady business transactions of the early 1990s.00:27:05.442
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- Such excesses were successfully prevented thanks to the resourceful and attentive members00:27:13.422
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- of the board of administration, under the Czech Visual Art Fund.00:27:19.092
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- The first elected board of administration of the newly decreed Visual Art Foundation,00:27:25.043
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- started a period of gradual disintegration.00:27:31.603
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- The transformation was fast and complicated -which is typical in this country-00:27:36.133
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- and had to be done in two or three months. A group of artists and lawyers worked on it00:27:42.166
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- and we managed to meet the deadline, so the Foundation establishment was legitimate.00:27:50.641
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- It's one of a few foundations defined by law. This means that all organisation systems,00:27:57.203
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- statutes, and relations are pursuant to the law and must be strictly respected.00:28:04.108
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- The legal definition of the Foundation is: a legal entity instituted by a founding act,00:28:10.250
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- in accordance with the Civil Code regulations at that time.00:28:18.355
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- As at that time the law about foundations wasn't in force,00:28:22.952
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- when the law was enforced the Foundation got its statute.00:28:27.440
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- Its peculiarity, along with other former funds that were turned into foundations,00:28:32.827
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- is that it doesn't have existing founders.00:28:40.077
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- The first members of the board of administration and board of trustees, were appointed by00:28:43.907
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- the former Fund: that expired within a year, in accordance with the law about the transformation,00:28:52.583
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- and became a legal successor with the exception of state property.00:29:01.282
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- I'm not sure if the Ministry of Culture realised it or nobody paid any attention,00:29:07.394
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- but the problem with the decreed funds at that time; lets call them culture funds;00:29:14.778
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- was that they had the legal character of another state organisation.00:29:23.602
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- This meant that they administered another state property. It wasn't state property that someone had00:29:28.967
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- the right to administer, but it was state property, and the question is: what of the state property00:29:37.469
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- should have remained as state property and not been transferred into the Foundation?00:29:47.028
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- - but nobody dealt with it at the time, because Land Register was busy00:29:53.167
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- transforming from Geodesy to Land Register,00:29:56.621
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- and they handled all institutional matters - culture funds and municipal property - quite superficially.00:29:59.609
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- If the Ministry of Culture or Treasury Department made the decision to give them00:30:08.247
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- another property, the law didn't mention how to proceed...00:30:15.212
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- For that you would have to search somewhere else, and Czech clerks are not always punctual...00:30:20.619
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- I guess there was an effort to get rid of the funds because they didn't want to deal with it;00:30:28.555
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- and the thesis of one huge culture fund was created. It's an embarrassing story about the state00:30:34.801
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- trying to create a lottery under false pretences, to provide culture with a lot of money.00:30:40.834
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- The Foundation management was determined by the obligation settlement,00:30:48.287
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- that logically fell into the Czech Visual Artist Fund - Dílo abolishment for example.00:30:55.789
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- The issue was so huge that, for example, we found out that Dílo also exported weapons.00:31:02.551
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- It was enormously complicated and the work was dreadful...00:31:14.283
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- We had enough money to support art, but the foundation wasn't to conduct any business00:31:21.789
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- - although with the new civil law that was going to change.00:31:32.097
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- So the foundation could only make money through rentals, and in the great country we live in, renting00:31:35.699
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- showed to be extremely unfavourable and complex; and all this had to be solved: the debts had to be paid off...00:31:47.910
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- However, we gained other claims from the foundation...00:32:00.769
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- In 1995 we published a list of their property in the Atelier magazine and made them realise00:32:04.723
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- how they treated their property and how much of it they had...00:32:14.708
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- - but it all came to nothing when they changed their code and subsequently all the statutes.00:32:19.605
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- Those on the board of administration influenced the elections,00:32:32.446
- 00:32:32.446
- which resulted in election termination. The unions stopped to appoint their representatives00:32:40.180
- 00:32:40.180
- and thus any inspection was impossible...00:32:47.608
- 00:32:47.608
- The Foundation's last statute was determined in 2013, and they didn't make it public on their web page,00:32:51.604
- 00:32:51.604
- but it was evident from the Internet. However, the preceding statutes00:32:59.932
- 00:32:59.932
- prove that the board of administration; which is the supreme board;00:33:04.399
- 00:33:04.399
- renews itself, and its founder was the abolitionary Fund that was terminated00:33:08.606
- 00:33:08.606
- a year after the Foundation's establishment. So it hasn't got a founder capable of any action,00:33:17.144
- 00:33:17.144
- and the board of administrators make decisions for themselves: they appoint and dismiss themselves.00:33:24.843
- 00:33:24.843
- The only thing that works is the term of office, after which the board expires and there is00:33:35.102
- 00:33:35.102
- a restriction of two terms, but if they omit one of them, it allows them to return...00:33:41.441
- 00:33:41.441
- The electoral system is given by the statute. To alter the statute for some changes00:33:47.729
- 00:33:47.729
- would be impossible as it would be too fragmented. The statute clearly defines how00:33:53.450
- 00:33:53.450
- members can be voted onto the board of administration. The groups usually send their representatives,00:34:01.084
- 00:34:01.084
- and the board elects one third, and the remaining part varies.00:34:11.874
- 00:34:11.874
- So just one third alternates - people are selected according00:34:22.942
- 00:34:22.942
- to their credit and their capability to work in the Foundation.00:34:33.187
- 00:34:33.187
- The choice is made by many to prevent potential prejudice...00:34:42.573
- 00:34:42.573
- I was made to leave many times before being re-elected.00:34:52.282
- 00:34:52.282
- The institution is uncontrollable, the state made a crucial mistake00:35:01.401
- 00:35:01.401
- when it didn't define the conditions for inspecting funds that were transformed into foundations.00:35:08.279
- 00:35:08.279
- After the revolution, it was believed that there was no need for00:35:16.434
- 00:35:16.434
- conception in culture and that it was not possible to interfere with it.00:35:22.025
- 00:35:22.025
- Therefore, some mechanisms that would have been useful00:35:26.140
- 00:35:26.140
- were forgotten, and the question was how they'd be revived.00:35:35.883
- 00:35:35.883
- This may be true for all three existing foundations:00:35:39.820
- 00:35:39.820
- not only art, but also the literary or music ones.00:35:44.012
- 00:35:44.012
- It's a very complex process into which the Ministry would have to intervene00:35:47.257
- 00:35:47.257
- in the first phase; and consequently the state legislative board and lawmakers...00:35:54.173
- 00:35:54.173
- -but I have my doubts.00:36:03.151
- 00:36:03.151
- The mistake made in 1993, when the law about transformations was passed, was fatal.00:36:06.446
- 00:36:06.446
- I believe it wasn't made deliberately, but the lack of experience and naive belief00:36:12.112
- 00:36:12.112
- that artists could manage their own matters may sound nice, but it stopped00:36:20.258
- 00:36:20.258
- working the moment the first board of administration was set up00:36:25.856
- 00:36:25.856
- - and that was it.00:36:29.764
- 00:36:29.764
- A call for democratic designation sounds nice, but there is no mechanism embodied00:36:31.787
- 00:36:31.787
- in the foundation statute - or the law about transformation - to make it possible.00:36:38.955
- 00:36:38.955
- There would have to be a distinct legislative change,00:36:48.248
- 00:36:48.248
- or the foundation board of administration would have to be enlightened enough00:36:51.670
- 00:36:51.670
- to elect different representatives than are elected today...00:36:58.380
- 00:36:58.380
- If you look at the list of names, you can see that it was an enclosed community00:37:04.448
- 00:37:04.448
- of different artists, architects, painters, sculptors, and so on.00:37:09.821
- 00:37:09.821
- On 25th November 2004, the Constitutional Court rejected all complaints by the Mánes Association of Visual Artists00:38:37.333
- 00:38:37.333
- about the courts' procedures; without the possibility to appeal against the decision.00:38:45.416
- 00:38:45.416
- Nine years have passed and the foundation hasn't made any radical moves towards00:38:49.783
- 00:38:49.783
- the art community or current political issues. The period of lengthy lawsuits00:38:54.829
- 00:38:54.829
- to appoint the owner of the the Mánes Association of Visual Artists' building and property,00:39:02.461
- 00:39:02.461
- serves the Foundation up to the present time as an excuse for their inactivity.00:39:07.538
- 00:39:07.538
- Since that time, Mánes has been ill-famed as a place where no exhibitions are held,00:39:13.648
- 00:39:13.648
- because its activities have mostly been commercial, and a few of the last exhibitions worth mentioning00:39:19.417
- 00:39:19.417
- at Mánes were bound with people that the Foundation skilfully got rid of for different reasons.00:39:26.822
- 00:39:26.822
- Not to mention the astronomical sums of money the Foundation demanded for exhibitions in Mánes.00:39:34.747
- 00:39:34.747
- In the 1990s and 2000s the foundation managed, relatively quickly and with success,00:39:42.633
- 00:39:42.633
- to cope with all the criticism coming from both within and without.00:39:48.743
- 00:39:48.743
- Apart from minor groupings and individuals who spoke out critically,00:39:53.853
- 00:39:53.853
- the foundation's activity and attitudes were met with an absolute lack of interest by the art community.00:39:59.248
- 00:39:59.248
- The Foundation should follow the art scene in this country with respect to its history and continuity.00:40:06.692
- 00:40:06.692
- The Foundation's 19 years of existence have been the greatest period of disillusionment.00:40:17.561
- 00:40:17.561
- The Foundation doesn't really support artists, unlike music or literary foundations who,00:40:26.364
- 00:40:26.364
- as we all know, bestow awards, grants, and scholarships; and give away a lot of money...00:40:38.141
- 00:40:38.141
- The Foundation, instead of doing a similar thing, only gave away the obligatory 300 000,- a year.00:40:51.816
- 00:40:51.816
- Nobody knew who to: now they release it on their web page but they never published their annual reports before...00:40:59.583
- 00:40:59.583
- When there isn't much money, it's hard to work with it00:41:08.986
- 00:41:08.986
- and decide who to support and why... Such redistribution is correct,00:41:13.128
- 00:41:13.128
- but to be frank, it's not always what it should be. I personally have a big problem with it...00:41:25.966
- 00:41:25.966
- What it was possible to live on in the past is insufficient today, and the ways00:41:35.761
- 00:41:35.761
- and methods of work must be different. It's all based on business and money making,00:41:43.381
- 00:41:43.381
- and the visual art world appears more and more fragile.00:41:51.004
- 00:41:51.004
- The truth is that exhibitions aren't always profitable, and we often get into financial loss.00:41:57.731
- 00:41:57.731
- As for the Foundation's development, I assume the unions will perk up00:42:18.629
- 00:42:18.629
- so that Mánes will serve as a union building, and at the same time as a place for presentation.00:42:31.200
- 00:42:31.200
- Certain policies should also be created towards the state, as the state behaves unkindly to citizens00:42:43.337
- 00:42:43.337
- who are engaged in art: possibly in despair....00:42:55.645
- 00:42:55.645
- The Foundation evidently didn't manage a lot during the past twenty years.00:43:16.826
- 00:43:16.826
- The worlds of art (or rather the world of culture) and politics passed each other successfully,00:43:22.457
- 00:43:22.457
- and all the objections to the methods of politicians in the cultural sphere00:43:28.342
- 00:43:28.342
- took place at different levels for the Foundation.00:43:32.625
- 00:43:32.625
- The initiative, 'Mánes for Artists' has been the only defiant movement so far.00:43:38.974
- 00:43:38.974
- The two-day, symbolic occupation of the Mánes building took place on the 18th and 19th April; on the riverbank00:43:47.370
- 00:43:47.370
- in front of the building; and attracted a lot of attention.00:43:53.727
- 00:43:53.727
- Although it was supported by a wide and relevant spectrum of personalities in a short time,00:43:58.048
- 00:43:58.048
- they couldn't avoid several, remarkable, critical reflections.00:44:04.604
- 00:44:04.604
- When the initiative was being established, there were many fundamental debates about00:44:09.757
- 00:44:09.757
- how to proceed and perform in the whole matter.00:44:14.503
- 00:44:14.503
- We didn't need to win the building to our own hands,00:44:21.132
- 00:44:21.132
- but to return the Mánes building to the initial purpose it was built for.00:44:26.026
- 00:44:26.026
- We appealed to the Foundation to link the building they administer with union life again.00:44:30.573
- 00:44:30.573
- We wanted the Foundation to initiate change and to find a solution00:44:42.299
- 00:44:42.299
- to reach unification again.00:44:46.403
- 00:44:46.403
- If there were any means of achieving the change from inside, or in a democratic way,00:44:49.703
- 00:44:49.703
- we would've made reasonable use of them of course,00:44:58.130
- 00:44:58.130
- but we were driven into a situation where it was impossible.00:45:01.637
- 00:45:01.637
- That's why we had to take such measures to appeal to their conscience;00:45:05.709
- 00:45:05.709
- and we had to do it from the street as we were divested of the interior of the building.00:45:11.229
- 00:45:11.229
- It's a pity that such an event didn't take place in 1995, 199600:45:37.365
- 00:45:37.365
- or 1997 when we wrote analytical articles about the embezzlement, in the Artist magazine00:45:43.868
- 00:45:43.868
- - but nobody reacted to it then. Nobody...00:45:51.704
- 00:45:51.704
- People should have seen the lawyers who invented the entire theft,00:46:11.501
- 00:46:11.501
- and how they laughed at the hipsters having a party there and then going home;00:46:20.182
- 00:46:20.182
- because from the viewpoint of the law, it was private property,00:46:28.623
- 00:46:28.623
- and democracy protects property nowadays.00:46:35.411
- 00:46:35.411
- If something is going to change, democracy always goes by the book.00:46:40.958
- 00:46:40.958
- When people are afraid to perform radically because they don't want to lose00:46:51.138
- 00:46:51.138
- what they have, nothing happens...00:47:03.582
- 00:47:03.582
- This shows that history changes only when there's nothing to lose:00:47:06.894
- 00:47:06.894
- then democracy isn't mentioned anymore and something must be done.00:47:13.935
- 00:47:13.935
- I think that minor radical acts of individuals or groups keep society healthy.00:47:17.725
- 00:47:17.725
- Radical gestures don't mean destroying or burning something down.00:47:26.138
- 00:47:26.138
- Breaking the law isn't a crime in the eyes of the people, but in the eyes of the law...00:47:33.232
- 00:47:33.232
- - but there are moments when stealing something that has already been stolen is not a crime.00:47:44.964
- 00:47:44.964
- If someone acts legally but not legitimately, should you react by the rules or illegally?00:47:51.658
- 00:47:51.658
- This question and discussion is crucial for the initiative.00:48:08.540
- 00:48:08.540
- If you try to act by the rules, it doesn't really work I guess.00:48:13.706
- 00:48:13.706
- The ambition of the 'Mánes for Artists' initiative was to join as wide a spectrum of people active in art as possible,00:48:54.638
- 00:48:54.638
- so that they could try to achieve radical change in the Czech Visual Art Foundation together,00:49:02.678
- 00:49:02.678
- and reappraise the existing opinion of union life principles.00:49:09.286
- 00:49:09.286
- Its actual act was the election that took place a month later in Prague Divus: onto the so-called00:49:15.343
- 00:49:15.343
- shadow board of administration for the Foundation. At first, the art community was called on00:49:21.770
- 00:49:21.770
- to nominate suitable candidates and vote to elect00:49:28.658
- 00:49:28.658
- 00:49:28.658
- onto the Foundation's shadow board of administration.00:49:35.639
- 00:49:35.639
- The voter turnout consisted of 304 rightful electors.00:49:39.079
- 00:49:39.079
- We appealed to their responsibility for the organisation.00:49:44.101
- 00:49:44.101
- We wanted them to elicit a process of self-removal from office and to accept new members.00:49:51.110
- 00:49:51.110
- This had to be done in three moves so that the majority of the board00:49:59.543
- 00:49:59.543
- would be able to remove the minority.00:50:04.730
- 00:50:04.730
- This process had to be launched. They needed to be told that a representative00:50:08.490
- 00:50:08.490
- sample of artists, theorists and curators didn't consider them competent,00:50:20.660
- 00:50:20.660
- and that they had a chance to redress after 20 years, the decline;00:50:26.927
- 00:50:26.927
- that may not have been caused by them personally; but that they were liable for by being there at the moment.00:50:34.480
- 00:50:34.480
- Of course cynics may ridicule us for of our naivety,00:50:41.736
- 00:50:41.736
- but I call it conceptual naivety when you make use of naive means to00:50:46.272
- 00:50:46.272
- make them realise what happened, and what they're responsible for, and that conscience exists.00:50:54.289
- 00:50:54.289
- I'm a member of the shadow board at the moment, and I feel that this argument works00:51:00.576
- 00:51:00.576
- when minimal communication is happening. When we spoke to Mr Kuthan00:51:06.899
- 00:51:06.899
- before the TV appearance, I could feel that he was overtaken00:51:13.229
- 00:51:13.229
- by the fact there were more people supporting us than them.00:51:17.556
- 00:51:17.556
- The aim was to intensify the furore over Mánes and the building reconstruction;00:51:22.573
- 00:51:22.573
- and at the same time to get the Foundation's current management to make their elections00:51:29.689
- 00:51:29.689
- onto the board transparent, so it could bring about a gradual re-election of members00:51:37.065
- 00:51:37.065
- in the future, and make the Foundation progressively meaningful and purposeful.00:51:43.971
- 00:51:43.971
- After the elections in August, we wrote a letter to the board of administration00:51:50.790
- 00:51:50.790
- asking them to meet us and uncover the economical background of their activities:00:51:56.327
- 00:51:56.327
- predominantly the conditions under which they suspended the building00:52:01.909
- 00:52:01.909
- and how they saw the repayment. We didn't get an answer, even00:52:07.905
- 00:52:07.905
- after sending a reminder, so we wrote an open letter that we also published on web pages00:52:14.742
- 00:52:14.742
- and sent to everyone on the board: but nobody replied to that either.00:52:23.496
- 00:52:23.496
- The only reaction was by Mr Siegel, who asked us not to use their private addresses and to contact the director00:52:28.739
- 00:52:28.739
- - but no specific answer or proposition to meet was made.00:52:36.989
- 00:52:36.989
- I think we all had a positive approach as we didn't want to criticise,00:52:44.837
- 00:52:44.837
- but to try to arrange a meeting that would open the situation00:52:50.462
- 00:52:50.462
- not only to us; a fragment of the art community; but also to the public.00:52:58.818
- 00:52:58.818
- There should be a discussion on what this chain of events, resulting in Mánes' indebtedness, had taught us.00:53:05.801
- 00:53:05.801
- We learned a lot about the way they did things, there was a certain determination and energy00:53:19.560
- 00:53:19.560
- when the Fund was being transformed into the Foundation.00:53:26.480
- 00:53:26.480
- In 1995 it seemed that there was a certain good-will to do something for the art community,00:53:32.267
- 00:53:32.267
- and if everything had continued as well as it had started, it wouldn't lie in ruins today.00:53:39.286
- 00:53:39.286
- After the elections for the shadow board of the Czech Visual Art Foundation,00:54:21.893
- 00:54:21.893
- the nine members of the shadow board tried to make contact with the current Foundation's board,00:54:25.967
- 00:54:25.967
- and to solve the hopeless situation through different, available, official means.00:54:32.172
- 00:54:32.172
- The increased urge for union life by the art community, resulted in the establishment of a new union00:54:39.471
- 00:54:39.471
- with all the requirements needed to be operational and have a beneficial effect.00:54:48.387
- 00:54:48.387
- At present, both lines of demand and interest pervade and complement each other.00:54:53.945
- 00:54:53.945
- The shadow board of the Foundation is trying to save everything valuable that was left from the past,00:55:00.209
- 00:55:00.209
- and part of the 'Mánes for Artists' initiative focuses on the possibilities of this newly arising union;00:55:05.599
- 00:55:05.599
- based on the synthesis of principal ideas from the past, and entirely new ideas.00:55:12.368
- 00:55:12.368
- All the events surrounding the Mánes exhibition hall and Foundation,00:55:19.208
- 00:55:19.208
- triggered debates on union life and the realisation that we lost something significant00:55:24.728
- 00:55:24.728
- through self preoccupation and extreme individualism.00:55:34.016
- 00:55:34.016
- I consider Mánes to be a symptom of much more general issues.00:55:41.016
- 00:55:41.016
- I regard my generation and my peers as people who entered the art scene and00:55:48.851
- 00:55:48.851
- noticed that there was something wrong. Certain, crucial institutions didn't00:56:00.373
- 00:56:00.373
- work as they should or were just scandalous; or didn't work at all.00:56:06.118
- 00:56:06.118
- We tried to do something about it, but at a specific moment;00:56:13.886
- 00:56:13.886
- and this doesn't only apply for Mánes, but also for the hotel Praha and other institutions;00:56:18.703
- 00:56:18.703
- when we strain to reach our aim, we often find it's too late.00:56:25.240
- 00:56:25.240
- Even the occupation... When we symbolically started the occupation,00:56:34.898
- 00:56:34.898
- we found that we were occupying ruins...00:56:42.334
- 00:56:42.334
- It's hard to say what the intention was: whether it was giving people a reconstructed Mánes,00:56:45.238
- 00:56:45.238
- or presenting the background for its total indebtedness00:56:52.959
- 00:56:52.959
- and showing that there was no money for exhibitions or for continual work on its programme.00:57:03.527
- 00:57:03.527
- Everything had to be generated: the restaurant had to be leased, as well as the other parts00:57:11.034
- 00:57:11.034
- of Mánes, so that the loan could be paid off - if they were successful in refinancing it with another bank loan...00:57:18.876
- 00:57:18.876
- We didn't know if we should try harder to put the ruins back together,00:57:24.108
- 00:57:24.108
- or give up and try to create something of our own...00:57:33.107
- 00:57:33.107
- There was no time to wait for A to be done so that B could follow...00:57:40.287
- 00:57:40.287
- It all had to be done at once, which meant splitting-up the group of people engaged in the issue,00:57:47.429
- 00:57:47.429
- so that everyone could do the things they're more familiar with,00:57:58.876
- 00:57:58.876
- or that they consider to be more important or able to be done better...00:58:02.415
- 00:58:02.415
- We may communicate with the Mánes Visual Artist Association, and with the people who did their best in the 1990s00:58:05.422
- 00:58:05.422
- to have Mánes operating fairly well. I assume they won't be interested in the new union.00:58:10.961
- 00:58:10.961
- Consequently there was a kind of cleansing of the two aims clearly defined00:58:19.156
- 00:58:19.156
- - which is good I guess...00:58:25.423
- 00:58:25.423
- At the same time, nobody knows how the new union will operate.00:58:27.513
- 00:58:27.513
- Everyone expects something and we'll check step by step to see if it's a utopia or if00:58:32.062
- 00:58:32.062
- it is unable to operate within the giant democratic body; and we'll see if it gets interesting to have00:58:39.892
- 00:58:39.892
- a distinctive and sharp view point when it's intended for hundreds of people...00:58:49.422
- 00:58:49.422
- We will see...00:59:00.297
- 00:59:00.297
- In my opinion, this is the biggest problem - and I repeat that I don't feel able to judge it,00:59:05.400
- 00:59:05.400
- let alone to induce dreams...00:59:12.434
- 00:59:12.434
- The younger generation should finally be able to contact institutional connections, so they're entitled00:59:15.222
- 00:59:15.222
- to participate in decision-making. That's my opinion.00:59:24.620
- 00:59:24.620
- That's why I really like the appeal in fact... - but who is it waiting for?00:59:28.357
- 00:59:28.357
- For us? Nothing is waiting for us anymore... The Valley of Death is in view...00:59:36.656
- 00:59:36.656
- You still have the chance to move up and choose your way, but we already see the Valley of Death.00:59:43.035
- 00:59:43.035
- We already know what it looks like and which way to take: whether the steep one, short one or the long one...00:59:51.202
- 00:59:51.202
- Whether to climb, plod or crawl... It varies...00:59:57.757
- 00:59:57.757
- - but the younger generation has the future ahead and should be part of the development.01:00:01.986
- 01:00:01.986
- In spring 2013, the Foundation assigned Mánes to the charitable trust, Apella Fine Arts o.p.s.01:00:42.365
- 01:00:42.365
- which has pledged 130.000.000 CZK to the building company, Skanska, for the reconstruction realisation.01:00:49.064