Discussion ForumFrom the Benefits of Centralised Culture to Artists on Benefits

From the Benefits of Centralised Culture to Artists on Benefits: How Has the State Support of the Arts Changed after 1989?

10:00 am – 12:30 pm

In the summer of 1989, the playwright and dissident Václav Havel articulated the demands of the opposition in a petition signed by more than forty thousand people. The petitioners were asking the communist government (among other things) to put an end to the persecution of independent associations and the censorship of media and culture. Only one year later, Havel was democratically elected as president and the state supervision of culture ceased. Already in January 1990, the Central Association of Czech Visual Artists perished, and a new law was passed that legalised the free establishment of independent unions, clubs and movements. However, the initial euphoria caused by the newly gained freedom of expression was soon met with the limited cultural funding available in the newly founded market economy, and in the past thirty years has been replaced with disenchantment arising from precarious working conditions. The conference will focus on the strategies and criteria that have been – and could have been – deployed by the post-Communist state to support the arts that does not simply comply with the principles of consumerist culture. In her paper, Slovenian researcher Vesna Čopič compares the development of the state cultural policy in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, focusing on the decline or perpetuation of socialist structures. The expert on cultural policy, Eva Žáková, and the curator of OFF-Biennale, Hajnalka Somogyi, outline in more detail the development of cultural policies in relation to the visual arts support in the Czech Republic and Hungary. The final debate, hosted by Anežka Bartlová, will discuss the particular measures that could be adopted by the state to improve the working conditions of visual artists nowadays.

Dramaturgy:

Markéta Jonášová

Moderator:

Anežka Bartlová

Discussing:

Vesna Čopič
Hajnalka Somogyi
Eva Žáková

Event venue:

Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague
17. listopadu Street No.2
Prague 1

Line Up:

10:00 am — 10:45 am

Vesna Čopič

11:00 am — 11:20 am

Hajnalka Somogyi

11:20 am — 11:40 am

Eva Žáková

11:40 am — 12:30 pm

discussion – moderated by Anežka Bartlová

Transformation of the media thirty years after

Since 1989, the Czech media landscape has developed rapidly. The media have been privatized and commercialized, the market liberalized, advertising introduced, and several waves of ownership changes and a number of technological innovations have come. The attitudes of the public and political representation to the media have changed. The way how the media transformation influenced our lives and the media images themselves will be the theme of a panel discussion of leading experts in media and visual culture.