The Czech Visual Art Foundation Mánes on Artyčok

„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
00:02:45.327
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
00:02:59.057
Under the Foundation, the commercialisation of the gallery's operation00:03:04.804
00:03:04.804
lacked any artistic targets or concern for the quality of the exhibition programme and other activities.00:03:08.923
00:03:08.923
It proceeded as such, owing to the art community's total resignation00:03:16.377
00:03:16.377
to the presented ideals of union life.00:03:22.028
00:03:22.028
A relatively wide spectrum of the art community were unprecedentedly activated,00:03:27.768
00:03:27.768
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
00:03:54.607
The situation with Mánes' unfunctional exhibition hall and Czech Visual Art Foundation00:04:05.601
00:04:05.601
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
00:04:18.622
I think artists' discontent with cultural institutions and the Ministry of culture00:04:23.618
00:04:23.618
has been present for a long time, and the urge00:04:30.929
00:04:30.929
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
00:04:53.883
The foundation operates only as an estate agency, leasing the place.00:05:03.651
00:05:03.651
It sometimes appears as-though something is going on there, but it's someone else who is paying for it.00:05:08.805
00:05:08.805
The foundation administration is legal, but not legitimate. Its operation in the past 20 years has proven00:05:14.848
00:05:14.848
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
00:05:36.724
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
00:06:23.547
and subsequent administration, of the Czech Visual Art Foundation.00:06:29.834
00:06:29.834
To better understand the lengthy case that emerged after 1989,00:06:34.204
00:06:34.204
it's important to go back; not only to the pre-revolution operation of the Czech Visual Art Fund;00:06:39.082
00:06:39.082
but also to the situation created by the Mánes Union of Artists,00:06:47.110
00:06:47.110
from 1948 to its disputed abolition in the 1950s.00:06:52.851
00:06:52.851
It's very complicated and I'm not very knowledgeable about the 1950s,00:07:00.484
00:07:00.484
but as we've taken care of the case since its beginning after 1990;00:07:07.817
00:07:07.817
and as we used to have residence in Mánes next to the Mánes Union; we could look into it00:07:17.928
00:07:17.928
- but you'd better ask the Mánes Union because they went to court.00:07:25.167
00:07:25.167
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
00:07:31.053
and the abolishments should have been signed by the minister of culture of the time,00:07:46.819
00:07:46.819
but the Mánes Union was the only one that didn't have the paper signed by the minister.00:07:52.489
00:07:52.489
There wasn't a signature, so the Union protested vehemently. The former chairman of the Union, Jaroslav Fragner,00:07:58.694
00:07:58.694
protested to the minister about the property sequestration and Union liquidation.00:08:09.188
00:08:09.188
All the funds - literary, music, theatre, and art - were established in the 1950s.00:08:21.842
00:08:21.842
This may sound a bit heretical, but they were very well operated institutions,00:08:33.265
00:08:33.265
based on a good principle in favour of artists. I was employed there for many years00:08:47.278
00:08:47.278
before the revolution, so I could see into their activities from the inside.00:08:56.271
00:08:56.271
The initial Fund of Czech Visual Artists was a trade union in a way,00:09:02.450
00:09:02.450
and at the same time a business concern. The ideological part, that created the issues00:09:12.010
00:09:12.010
we all had reservations about, was held by the Association of Czechoslovakian Visual Artists00:09:20.874
00:09:20.874
and the Association of Czech Visual Artists. All the art funds were a certain state inside a state.00:09:31.543
00:09:31.543
All artists and theorists were deducted 3 percent from their charges by copyright protection,00:09:42.224
00:09:42.224
and the money went to the funds.00:09:55.452
00:09:55.452
When I worked there, the fund was directed by engineer, Stepanovský00:09:57.864
00:09:57.864
- who wasn't a member of the Communist Party - and the fund operated at several levels.00:10:03.690
00:10:03.690
Firstly, there were scholarships that would assure living art today:00:10:11.893
00:10:11.893
the scholarships were granted to artists after their graduation.00:10:26.453
00:10:26.453
There were also creative grants for several years. Artworks were bought from artists00:10:31.831
00:10:31.831
and as the fund became gradually rich, it purchased many properties,00:10:41.191
00:10:41.191
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
00:10:53.618
The Fund also created so-called 'art commissions' that were on the one hand very bad,00:11:08.398
00:11:08.398
but important for those in the membership. Today it would be quite convenient00:11:19.530
00:11:19.530
because it secured professionalism and provided income for the artists.00:11:26.170
00:11:26.170
The Fund had a very positive role in the revolution00:11:38.923
00:11:38.923
as it provided a background for the entirety of the Mánes and art communities.00:11:44.575
00:11:44.575
Everything that was photocopied there, all the posters, all the phone calls...00:11:51.661
00:11:51.661
everything that took place in Mánes was arranged by the Fund.00:11:57.616
00:11:57.616
Shortly after the revolution, the Union of Artists claimed it,00:12:42.161
00:12:42.161
and twenty-two so-called members or refounders announced the continuation of its activity.00:12:48.150
00:12:48.150
Via its renewed activity, the Union started enforcing the right for restitution of the confiscated property.00:12:55.861
00:12:55.861
Its opacity, with reference to its termination in the 1950s, served as a surprisingly00:13:04.182
00:13:04.182
fundamental argument in the lawsuit between the Mánes Union and the Visual Art Fund:00:13:10.713
00:13:10.713
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
00:13:22.504
and thus the twenty-two expanded to a hundred or a hundred and fifteen.00:13:34.781
00:13:34.781
So the Union was interesting because it was cross-generational.00:13:46.823
00:13:46.823
There were ninety-year-old respectable visual artists together with the thirty-year-old ones,00:13:55.200
00:13:55.200
so there were generational discussions and the Union was very active in the beginning.00:14:05.896
00:14:05.896
The meetings were well attended, as were the discussion nights that took place there...00:14:13.367
00:14:13.367
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
00:14:29.071
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
00:14:50.813
many representatives of the board said that the Union had to get the building back itself.00:14:56.734
00:14:56.734
The problem was the social pressure when union life was revived.00:15:04.415
00:15:04.415
Colleagues from Mánes stood up for the Mánes tradition and longed to reclaim the building ownership.00:15:14.132
00:15:14.132
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
00:15:35.074
Nothing happened, and after four years of waiting the Union pressed charges to determine the owner,00:15:45.908
00:15:45.908
and the (at many instances unbearable) judicial cycle began. It went through everyone,00:15:57.018
00:15:57.018
then it all started again on three instances until they made their decision after ten years...00:16:03.098
00:16:03.098
It's interesting to follow the issue from the view of the Foundation,00:16:09.039
00:16:09.039
who applied three types of defence to their web. The first said that the Mánes Union consisted of people00:16:14.563
00:16:14.563
who were supporters of the previous regime: they weren't dissidents, on the contrary00:16:33.012
00:16:33.012
they cooperated with the regime. The question is to what extent the Union is responsible for their00:16:40.711
00:16:40.711
post-war members. As we all know, the Czech culture platform used to be mainly left-wing,00:16:47.349
00:16:47.349
so artists were no exception. Their participation after 1948 is disagreeable,00:16:53.956
00:16:53.956
but it wouldn't surprise me that much...00:17:04.390
00:17:04.390
This is written on the Foundation website, it's one of their recent attacks...00:17:07.298
00:17:07.298
It says that many members of the Mánes Union became active members of the Association: consequently the Fund...00:17:12.561
00:17:12.561
- but that was true of everyone in the country in the unbearable 1950s.00:17:20.776
00:17:20.776
Many artists, not only union members, worked actively in the Association. Many of them were soon found out00:17:29.421
00:17:29.421
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
00:17:45.858
Another argument was that they didn't build it from their own money, which was generally known in fact...00:17:52.070
00:17:52.070
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
00:18:07.403
The state contributed a million, the president Masaryk 200 000 crowns, Rothschild helped too...00:18:15.669
00:18:15.669
- but there was also a debt that should have been paid off in 1956.00:18:24.062
00:18:24.062
This argument is interesting because the Mánes Union was ready to settle the debt,00:18:31.998
00:18:31.998
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
00:19:01.467
because there wasn't a guarantee that it would contribute to building socialism;00:19:11.120
00:19:11.120
and because the Union didn't prove their contribution; the judicial decision was valid.00:19:16.790
00:19:16.790
That was one reason, and the other was that the Union didn't show any continuity of existence00:19:25.743
00:19:25.743
- but the Union itself never dissolved, they just wouldn't meet regularly,00:19:37.091
00:19:37.091
wouldn't organise plenary sessions and unfortunately, wouldn't make exhibitions; because if they00:19:44.183
00:19:44.183
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
00:20:07.084
that the Mánes Union had no rights, and the building remained the property of the Foundation.00:20:14.400
00:20:14.400
The situation was absurd because in the early nineties, when the restitution laws were made,00:20:21.392
00:20:21.392
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
00:20:36.244
and as for the legal entities: they said it wasn't possible to search them out00:20:42.326
00:20:42.326
- but this wasn't true of course. The breakthrough came with the restitution of the Sokol organisation and DTJ:00:20:46.206
00:20:46.206
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
00:21:07.972
abolished incorrectly or weren't abolished at all, and they claimed their rights in due time.00:21:17.389
00:21:17.389
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
00:22:06.322
The Constitutional Court upheld the Supreme Court's decision and declared that a legal injury had evidently been made.00:22:16.266
00:22:16.266
Nevertheless, it came about because the Mánes Union wasn't listed in the law of restitution.00:22:23.940
00:22:23.940
We did our best to make our way through the political intentions.00:22:35.037
00:22:35.037
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
00:22:57.635
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
00:23:10.084
and although not all the social democrats joined the Communist Party...00:23:26.341
00:23:26.341
It was very similar.00:23:34.972
00:23:34.972
So we saw the senator Dienstbier, who heard us out and made sense of the whole matter;00:23:37.041
00:23:37.041
However, he announced his candidacy for the presidency a week later, so we had to abandon this idea.00:23:46.977
00:23:46.977
We thought that only a modification of the restitution law would change the situation.00:24:00.864
00:24:00.864
The analogy of cultural organisations, the church, and physical education organisations was in order,00:24:06.711
00:24:06.711
because they remained in the same state after 1945: with the exception of Sokol after 1918,00:24:13.483
00:24:13.483
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
00:24:23.535
The problem was that nobody created a lobby for it.00:24:36.432
00:24:36.432
If nobody pressures effectively, the deputies won't respond and let it go.00:24:39.715
00:24:39.715
Effective pressure can be made on an art platform as well...00:24:49.083
00:24:49.083
Effective pressure is not holding a banner in a square and saying you demand something, I guess...00:24:52.376
00:24:52.376
The legal actions taken to ordain the owner of the confiscated property of the Mánes Visual Artists' Association,00:26:15.856
00:26:15.856
proceeded in parallel and independent of the Visual Art Fund's transformation into the Foundation.00:26:20.228
00:26:20.228
It took place over several months, on the basis of hastily enacted regulations.00:26:28.379
00:26:28.379
The Foundation statute was also consolidated by the law of foundations, in 1993.00:26:34.259
00:26:34.259
Without regard for the progress and future result of the lawsuit,00:26:42.465
00:26:42.465
the Foundation administered and operated the Mánes building00:26:46.296
00:26:46.296
together with other property conveyed from the Visual Art Fund.00:26:51.200
00:26:51.200
The wealthy Fund of Visual Art attracted a lot of attention, and during the transformation chaos, there were attempts00:26:56.021
00:26:56.021
to strip it of its assets and links with the shady business transactions of the early 1990s.00:27:05.442
00:27:05.442
Such excesses were successfully prevented thanks to the resourceful and attentive members00:27:13.422
00:27:13.422
of the board of administration, under the Czech Visual Art Fund.00:27:19.092
00:27:19.092
The first elected board of administration of the newly decreed Visual Art Foundation,00:27:25.043
00:27:25.043
started a period of gradual disintegration.00:27:31.603
00:27:31.603
The transformation was fast and complicated -which is typical in this country-00:27:36.133
00:27:36.133
and had to be done in two or three months. A group of artists and lawyers worked on it00:27:42.166
00:27:42.166
and we managed to meet the deadline, so the Foundation establishment was legitimate.00:27:50.641
00:27:50.641
It's one of a few foundations defined by law. This means that all organisation systems,00:27:57.203
00:27:57.203
statutes, and relations are pursuant to the law and must be strictly respected.00:28:04.108
00:28:04.108
The legal definition of the Foundation is: a legal entity instituted by a founding act,00:28:10.250
00:28:10.250
in accordance with the Civil Code regulations at that time.00:28:18.355
00:28:18.355
As at that time the law about foundations wasn't in force,00:28:22.952
00:28:22.952
when the law was enforced the Foundation got its statute.00:28:27.440
00:28:27.440
Its peculiarity, along with other former funds that were turned into foundations,00:28:32.827
00:28:32.827
is that it doesn't have existing founders.00:28:40.077
00:28:40.077
The first members of the board of administration and board of trustees, were appointed by00:28:43.907
00:28:43.907
the former Fund: that expired within a year, in accordance with the law about the transformation,00:28:52.583
00:28:52.583
and became a legal successor with the exception of state property.00:29:01.282
00:29:01.282
I'm not sure if the Ministry of Culture realised it or nobody paid any attention,00:29:07.394
00:29:07.394
but the problem with the decreed funds at that time; lets call them culture funds;00:29:14.778
00:29:14.778
was that they had the legal character of another state organisation.00:29:23.602
00:29:23.602
This meant that they administered another state property. It wasn't state property that someone had00:29:28.967
00:29:28.967
the right to administer, but it was state property, and the question is: what of the state property00:29:37.469
00:29:37.469
should have remained as state property and not been transferred into the Foundation?00:29:47.028
00:29:47.028
- but nobody dealt with it at the time, because Land Register was busy00:29:53.167
00:29:53.167
transforming from Geodesy to Land Register,00:29:56.621
00:29:56.621
and they handled all institutional matters - culture funds and municipal property - quite superficially.00:29:59.609
00:29:59.609
If the Ministry of Culture or Treasury Department made the decision to give them00:30:08.247
00:30:08.247
another property, the law didn't mention how to proceed...00:30:15.212
00:30:15.212
For that you would have to search somewhere else, and Czech clerks are not always punctual...00:30:20.619
00:30:20.619
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
00:30:28.555
and the thesis of one huge culture fund was created. It's an embarrassing story about the state00:30:34.801
00:30:34.801
trying to create a lottery under false pretences, to provide culture with a lot of money.00:30:40.834
00:30:40.834
The Foundation management was determined by the obligation settlement,00:30:48.287
00:30:48.287
that logically fell into the Czech Visual Artist Fund - Dílo abolishment for example.00:30:55.789
00:30:55.789
The issue was so huge that, for example, we found out that Dílo also exported weapons.00:31:02.551
00:31:02.551
It was enormously complicated and the work was dreadful...00:31:14.283
00:31:14.283
We had enough money to support art, but the foundation wasn't to conduct any business00:31:21.789
00:31:21.789
- although with the new civil law that was going to change.00:31:32.097
00:31:32.097
So the foundation could only make money through rentals, and in the great country we live in, renting00:31:35.699
00:31:35.699
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
00:31:47.910
However, we gained other claims from the foundation...00:32:00.769
00:32:00.769
In 1995 we published a list of their property in the Atelier magazine and made them realise00:32:04.723
00:32:04.723
how they treated their property and how much of it they had...00:32:14.708
00:32:14.708
- but it all came to nothing when they changed their code and subsequently all the statutes.00:32:19.605
00:32:19.605
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

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