| Fotograf Festival #9

About the festival

In 2019, the Fotograf Festival entitled “Archeology of Euphoria” will present exhibitions, accompanying educational programs and discussions dedicated to the transformation of society from totalitarian regime to capitalism. As every year, the festival will focus on the specifics of photography and reproducible images as such, through the work of both foreign and local authors.

Although the contemporary Central Europe is undoubtedly experiencing the most idyllic period of its modern existence, the growing political and social problems of recent years, which often radically question the evolution of the last three decades, are increasingly returning us to the question of the anchoring and legitimacy of contemporary neoliberal society. An inconspicuous but essential part of today is a constant struggle for the image and logic of our past.

At the end of 1989, totalitarian regimes had fallen throughout the entire “Eastern Bloc”, which radically predestinated the development of further decades. However, the prevailing bipolar view of these political changes often simplifies the whole situation. With today‘s sufficient distance, it is possible to look at the issue of political and social changes not by the perspective of the turning point, but rather with the prospect of “melting” or “transition”.

The issue of the legitimacy and fundamentals of our democratic past, is, of course, related also to the question of the credibility of photography, mass media and propaganda and their influence on forming the social awareness and ethos of the times. The latest decades of the 20th century represent a time that has completed and subsequently problematized the domination of photography as a modern mass medium.The disintegration of the hierarchical and regulated distribution of media and information, which was being disturbed by the then “new media” (video, xerox, computers), gradually accessible to the wider public, contributed significantly to breaking the hegemony of central power.

A project is underway within the festival My history

Discussion Forum
18/10/2019

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

Hanjalka 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.