Action Czech Hands (Akce české ruce), 1998

Exhibition of posters, Cinema U Hradeb, Prague, 1998

With: David Fírek, Mychal Rydval, Zuzana Lednická

Prague, August 21, 1998. At the same time the governmental “Action: Clean Hands,” an anti-corruption affair was launched, Pode Bal created a reminder of the deeply imbedded communist tradition within the society. The theme used was a historical event: the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet army on August 21, 1968. A collection of nineteen posters attempted to see the thirty year old event in relation to the present. The totalitarian regime following the year 1968 was officially termed as “normalization.” The leitmotif of the exhibit was that “normalization of thought has many forms.”

The posters were exhibited in the foyer of Prague cinema U Hradeb, as an attempt to bring art from the galleries closer to the general public. At the opening of the exhibition on August 21, 1998, spoke the vice chairman of the Senate of the Czech republic, Mrs. Mozerova, who in January 1969 took care of the dying student Jan Palach, that had burned himself in attempt to awake the apathetic nation against the aggressors.