______1990-2001 THE PRISON IN VALDICE

The "velvet" revolution in November 1989 opened for art new, until then hermetically sealed places. One of them was the former Early-Baroque Carthusian monastery at Valdice near Jičín, transformed into a prison with a particularly rigid regime. In the past among the prisoners were people persecuted for political reasons. The absurd combination of a historical monument and its functional violence led to existential installations in one of the prison courtyards, personification of the desperate will to survive. An intangible aspect of the projects were, in addition to the threatening suspended block of concrete, patient and frank discussions with the prison inmates. The artist exploited his encounter with this oppressive environment in a separate project - Tribute to Jan Zahradníček. The Catholic poet passed through the hell of Communist jails. Quotations from his poems incorporated in large prints are undisguised accusations.