Václav Havel / Washing Out
A quarter century after the Velvet Revolution, it is increasingly apparent that the Czech society does not know what to do with its legacy. The Artwall Gallery is introducing a discussion about the legacy of the Velvet Revolution with a project by the Slovak artist, Martin Piaček, entitled Václav Havel / Washing Out. To perform this ‘washing out’, Piaček is symbolically using a soap bust of Václav Havel.
“Piaček’s work is deliberately ambiguous. The process of washing may refer to memory loss, as well as brainwashing or whitewashing,” said Zuzana Štefková, a curator of the project. “The title is a pun on Havel’s dramas, and an adoption of their absurd humor,” adds Piaček.
“I am interested in the use of heroes as instruments in politics, how one person changes into an abstract symbol and how his legacy subsequently is used or abused,” said Martin Piaček.
The persona of Václav Havel is a typical example of this instrumental use of a legacy across the political spectrum. On one hand, he is hailed as fighter against communism, yet he is critiqued for his alleged reformist communist stance, labeled as a “utopist,” and condemned as a supporter of military conflict. His supporters emphasize Havel’s interest in human rights, in contrast to today’s Czech political representatives and their servile relationship with China. Havel’s critics speak of his political naiveté or the controversial support for bombing during the war in former Yugoslavia and the approval of the U.S. Iraq invasion. For some, he is an admirable leader; for others he is a representative of non-standard, non-partisan policy or political kitsch.
Criticism comes from the left and right wings. To Havel’s right-leaning opponents, the term “pravdoláskař” (satirizing Havel’s motto: Truth and love have to overturn lie and hatred) is synonymous with an (often leftwing) ideological evildoer. Communist functionaries use the expression “havlista” as a slur. All the meanwhile there are attempts to trivialize the Czech dissident experience, as well as the tendency to place the dissidents on a pedestal.
“The ideals tend to fade with time. Piaček’s work can be understood as a warning that manipulation with ideals can change into an absurd drama,” adds Lenka Kukurová, one of the exhibition curators.
In this sense, the interpretation of Václav Havel’s role, as well as the interpretation of the November events and their meaning, are not just a matter of history, but above all a struggle to form today’s national and international policies and direction of contemporary Czech society.
- This Artwall project00:00:05.088
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- is to be understood as my reaction00:00:09.465
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- to an institutionalization of a hero;00:00:13.925
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- in Czech environment in this case.00:00:18.011
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- The process ironizes the way a heritage00:00:22.010
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- of historical personalities is utilized;00:00:26.255
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- how it sheds them of their individual00:00:30.508
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- psychological attributes.00:00:34.845
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- And heroes are becoming means to new ends.00:00:41.849
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- For me, personally, the show doesn't scrutinize00:00:48.869
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- the idea of hero, or his personality,00:00:52.804
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- but rather a conflict of ideals and real politics.00:00:56.932
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- The exhibition can be read, of course, in more00:01:01.024
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- than one way, and the way I see it00:01:05.183
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- is that every idealistic person that enters politics00:01:09.170
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- loses unavoidably her ideals - they are being faded out,00:01:13.273
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- or washed out. And it can happen00:01:17.558
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- that the ideals that managed not to get washed out00:01:21.457
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- or faded out while the person was still alive00:01:25.591
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- can get lost in the post mortem manipulation00:01:29.648
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- with the person's heritage. And that concerns also00:01:33.692
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- the personality of the former Czechoslovak president,00:01:37.859
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- Václav Havel.00:01:41.883
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- It looks like we have touched a topic00:01:45.056
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- that is quite hot right now.00:01:49.096
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- The interpretation of the heritage of Revolution, or Velvet Revolution,00:01:52.752
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- or some call it ironically Victorious November,00:01:56.835
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- is very up to date. And the personality00:02:00.945
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- of Václav Havel is a great means of showing this00:02:04.652
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- instrumentalization and the way it is used00:02:08.796
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- by politicians these days. A short glimpse00:02:12.842
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- into mass media is sufficient to see... for example,00:02:16.894
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- there is a shoot out taking place right now00:02:20.662
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- between the incumbent and the previous president.00:02:24.393
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- And how Václav Havel is, on one hand,00:02:27.710
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- being attacked by the Left as some kind of bourgeois sonny,00:02:31.636
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- a warmonger even, and on the other hand,00:02:35.198
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- he is criticized by the Right for his "truthlovism"00:02:38.198
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- and his alleged reformist communism.00:02:41.630
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- So I believe this topic is very important today,00:02:46.171
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- asking how will our society grasp it.00:02:50.416
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- Here they are in those small soap nets00:02:56.895
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- that are usually hanged above sink.00:03:00.407