2024-06-13 19:14:03
Over 90 artists signed a petition demanding adjustments within the administration of the Prague Academy of High-quality Arts, the Nationwide Gallery and the corporate that awards the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. The signatories are calling for the resignation of the rector of the college, Mária Topolčanská, and the restructuring of the gallery. The decision was signed by artists Milan Knížák, Jaroslav Róna, David Černý, Jan Svěrák and architect Josef Pleskot, a former member of the gallery’s assure board.
Different signatories embrace artists Michal Rittstein and František Skála, architect David Vávra, director Václav Marhoul, actor Milan Šteindler, guitarist Michal Pavlíček, actress Eliška Balzerová and economist Tomáš Sedláček. Amongst different issues, they’re bothered by the theme of the Czech pavilion on the Venice Biennale, which considerations colonization and was ready by the famend artist Eva Koťátková.
The director of the Nationwide Gallery, Alicja Knastová, “brings the entire establishment into insignificance and flaunts essentially the most fleeting up to date ideologies,” the letter states. “In follow, because of this the story of a giraffe introduced from Kenya on the time when the communists executed Milada Horáková and others is being introduced on the Biennale in Venice,” complain the artists. In accordance with Knastová, the undertaking was chosen by an knowledgeable jury from greater than 20 proposals, and she or he herself had no affect on it. He perceives the dispute as partly generational, because the signatories of the letter are of a distinct age than the creator of the undertaking, Koťátková.
The newspaper N wrote this Thursday that 23 members of the knowledgeable councils of the Nationwide Gallery resigned, who for different causes additionally resent the actions of the director of the gallery, Knastová. They accuse her, for instance, of not offering free admission to the gallery’s everlasting exhibitions to college students of artwork historical past departments.
Knastová responded by saying that she is engaged on the introduction of free admission by negotiating memoranda with universities. “We understand free admissions for college kids of chosen fields as a service that we’re pleased to supply. Nevertheless, they have to respect the findings of the Supreme Audit Workplace from 2022, which warned us that offering free admissions just isn’t potential with out additional justification, as it could be an inappropriate use of state funds “, responds the director.
Criticism to the academy
The authors of the newspaper are additionally bothered by the occasions on the Academy of High-quality Arts in Prague. In accordance with them, it “resigns the academic mission of a better schooling establishment in favor of recent short-lived ideologies and activist tendencies because of the instances”, the assertion states, including that the present administration of the college conjures up mistrust.
In accordance with the authors who’re demanding the rector’s resignation, the college is not main younger folks to their very own creative expression, however to crew activism.
For instance, they cite the current efficiency of Kateřina Olivová, who threw grime bare in entrance of the college constructing to the sound of techno music. “This individual didn’t get to the place of head of the studio by successful the choice course of, however with out chapter, as a result of the then rector Tomáš Vaněk used the correct of veto and pushed again the winner Zbyňek Baladrán, chosen by the fee,” criticize the authors of the letter. The Academy has not but commented on the allegations.
The letter additionally addresses adjustments within the awarding of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize, which beforehand awarded artists below the age of 35. The petitioners are upset that the prize has been modified to non-competitive, the place all finalists win, and that the age restrict for awardees has been abolished.
“We basically reject arbitrary interventions within the guidelines of this competitors, which have been established by Jindřich Chalupecký himself shortly earlier than his demise, and if this isn’t potential, we suggest the termination of the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize and the prohibition of additional use of this title,” recommend the signatories.
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