YOUTH GOVERNS BRNO REVISITED 1948-2013 / MLÁDEŽ VEDE BRNO REVISITED 1948-2013

Brno Art Open 2013

Featuring: Bára Bakošová, Martina Jetmarová, Lukáš Likavčan, Josef Patočka, Margita Rácová, and Tereza Vávrová.

A project with/about young community activists of Brno at the point in time 2013 with the objective of reflecting critically upon the historical event “Mládež vede Brno” from 1949, during which the youth took over all the essential functions in the city for the period of three days. It was an event-format that later on spread throughout the country securing the political power of the communist party. Our project was to reenact that historical event in a small scale. However, it was partially censored by the municipal authorities while being accused of spreading communist ideology. The intervention was banned from the city center.

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For three days in May 1949 almost 20,000 young people took part in the event “Mládež vede Brno” organized by the newly established communist authorities. Young people took over the production, services and administration in 82 companies in the city of Brno. The objective of the event was to gain the sympathy of the youngsters but also of the general population for the new regime. The event was considered a pure success, was subsequently organized in other cities, and helped secure the rule of the communist regime. The organizer of the event, Otto Sling, the mayor, a highly positioned communist, was sentenced to death later, in the intern power-struggles in 1952 but rehabilitated by the regime in 1963.

The objective of our project MLÁDEŽ vede Brno REVISITED 1948-2013 was to reflect critically upon that historical event. Additionally, we wanted to see what was in the minds of young community activists today. We wanted to give them a chance to be placed in the companies or institutions of their interest, and see what they might come up with. Our project featured six young activists interested in public education, ecology, social housing, problems of the Roma minority, and charity projects.

Our project attracted special attention from the city commission responsible for the Brno Art Open 2013 exhibition. Several members of the city commission wanted to cancel our project, labeling it as a communist propaganda. At two special meetings, at which the artist, Kristina Leko, the project curator, Michal Koleček, as well as the director of Arthouse Brno, Terezie Petišková, argued for freedom of speech and expression, the project was accepted on condition some alterations were made. However, the project did not get support from the city administration, which failed to organize the two placements in the city administration offices that we had expected. Thus, one of the important issues that we discussed within the project was the issue of the younger generation being given trust and the right to freely reflect on the historical heritage.

Through the course of our project the generation gap started to be revealed, as was the significant trauma of the communist regime. On the other hand, the placements of our project participants in several private companies showed how different the current Czech civil society was in comparison to 1949. Paradoxically, the private sector showed much more social responsibility than the city administration, by being more open to hosting our participants, community activists, and learning about their ideas.

Within the project we documented the placements online on our blog, i.e. on six different blogs, we met and discussed the placements within the team on a regular basis, we organized meetings and discussions in order to resist the pressure from the city administration. Finally, a get-together with a larger group of young activists was organized in the House of Arts Brno, where in an extensive discussion the project’s flow and the resistance to it were reflected. On that occasion the participants voted on the most appropriate slogan to be put up in public space to conclude and document the project. The winner was LOKALNI JE GLOBALNI – local is global. In the final action of the project, we placed our graffiti in the public space. It is probably needless to mention that the city administration did not allot us a central but a rather remote location for our intervention, far away from the city center and any attention. At the time, they did not even know which slogan we were about to paint on the allotted wall.

mladezvedebrno.tumblr.com

RELATED
Brno Art Open @ Brno Art House
https://mladezvedebrno.tumblr.com/
Katalog BAO – Exceprt
Story about the event of 1948 by KateřinaTučková

CREDITS
MLÁDEŽ vede Brno REVISITED 1948-2013 was commissioned by Brno Art Open 2013: On the Edge of Story in Brno, Czech Republic. Curatoror: Michal Koleček. Director, Brno Art House: Terezie Petišková. Artists: Kristina Leko. Collaborating activists: Bára Bakošová, Martina Jetmarová, Lukáš Likavčan, Josef Patočka, Margita Rácová, and Tereza Vávrová. project team Brno Art House: Petr Maška, producer, Alzbeta Medlova & Lucie Harapátová, documentary videos. Video statements: Kristina Leko. Web: Željko Blaće. Advising: David Smithson. Photos: Kristina Leko, historical archive.

GENRE&FORMATS
Project: community art project; participatory-documentary art project; project with specific social groups; interventions in social and public space, social plastic. Artwork/s and artifacts: workshops; encounters and social organiying; texts; blog publication; graffiti intervention in public space. Timeframe: process – 8 moths; community work – 3 months; workshops – 6 weeks. Number and profile of participants: 5 + 20 participants, young peple in their 20s.