SYMPOSION - civic association for culture

SYMPOSION was founded in 1992 by the painter Jiří Sozanský, the art historian Jiří T.Kotalík and the psychologist Olga Sozanská.

The SYMPOSION projects should be seen as a continuation of unofficial activities in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time several Czech artists tried, in most unfavourable conditions, to respond with their art to the moral, cultural and general devastation of their country. Jiří Sozanský was one of them - his projects at Terezín and Most were significant components of unofficial cultural activities.

SYMPOSION focuses solely on non-commercial projects of a wider civilizing significance. Its activities include many events with repercussions among artists both at home and abroad. Author of the SYMPOSION projects is Jiří Sozanský, his consulant and supervisor Jiří T.Kotalík.

The international projects BAROQUE AND THE PRESENT and OPEN DIALOGUE were carried out in the years 1992-1998 in the church of the Annunciation in Litoměřice. This provided a new mission for the devasted church, which had been closed for forty years and for most of the time served as a warehouse. These projects involved twenty four artists from most diverse national and religious environments, different cultures and art trends from several countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA.

Television documentaries and exhibitions and symposia in Paris (UNESCO, 1993) and Vienna (Palais Palffy - Grosse Galerie, 1993) acquainted the general public with these unique projects.

The Terezín Memorial was the venue of some international SYMPOSION projects - CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY (1993), ANXIETY OF THE BODY (1994) and WITNESSES AND VICTIMS (1996), immediate reactions to the tragic war in the Balkans. In these projects participated besides Czech artists their colleagues of different religions and nationalities from former Yugoslavia. It was a demonstration of solidarity at the time of mass murder in the region.

Moreover, in response to the tragic events in former Yugoslavia Symposion organized sundry humanitarian activities, helped provide aid to the inhabitants of beleaguered Sarajevo and on several occasions organized summer camps for Sarajevo children.

In 1994 Jiří Sozanský’s project FROM THE OTHER SHORE was a part of the 10th international PEN CLUB conference. Several projects were carried out at the burnt-out National Library in Sarajevo - FORUM POPULI and TRIBUTE TO SARAJEVO - with the participation of Czech and Sarajevo artists (1995, 1996)

In 1996 SYMPOSION organized donations of works of art by Czech artists - PRAGUE FOR SARAJEVO. In cooperation with the foundation People in Need the whole collection was brought to Sarajevo during the war and is now at the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Together with this collection Symposion sent to Sarajevo material for the Sarajevo Arts Academy - teaching aids and material for the students. During the war Jiří Sozanský held several workshops in Sarajevo and helped four students obtain scholaprships at art schools in the Czech Republic. In 1996 SYMPOSION participated in the project PROLJEĆE (Spring) 1996 organized in several towns of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the foundation People in Need. SYMPOSION prepared exhibitions of photographs, graphic art and Czech film posters from the 1960s and 1970s (Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar).

For its activities SYMPOSION was awarded in 1995 an honorary diploma from the INTERNATIONAL PEACE CENTRE in Sarajevo.

Works with the motif of war were presented, in cooperation with the Prague City Council, at an important exhibition organized by the CZECH CENTRE in Brussels at the former ice-making plant LE CLOS DES ARTS as part of the project ART IN EXTREME SITUATIONS (1997).

In 1999 SYMPOSION prepared together with the NATIONAL GALLERY in Prague Jiří Sozanský’s exhibition SOURCES OF INSPIRATION (Sternberg Palace in Prague - Collection of Old Masters of the NG), which displayed Jiří Sozanský’s work in a dialogue with prints and drawings of old masters from the collections of the National Gallery (Goya, Rembrandt, Škréta, Trogen, etc).

The project URBICIDE at the Archa theatre in 1999 was a tribute to the late Raymond Rehicer, refugee from Sarajevo, writer and town-planner, who lived in Prague since 1993 and was a close collaborator of SYMPOSION. SYMPOSION helped publish his book of essays "Unbearable Simplicity of Modernism and Other Texts" (MF 1999).

In 2000 SYMPOSION participated in PRAGUE - EUROPEAN CITY OF CULTURE 2000 with three projects based on similar motifs: the exhibition at the Mánes exhibition rooms WORK WITH THE BODY (Jiří Sozanský, Jaroslav Prokop,Ivan Komárek, Jiří Putta); Milan Maryška’s TV documentary of the same title and an evening at the Archa theatre "HONOUR AND FAME - MAGIC OF BOXING" directed by Jan Kraus.

In 2001 SYMPOSION presented its project IN THE SIGN OF POWER, a tribute to the poet Jan Zahradníček, whose poetry and tragic fate made a lasting impression on Jiří Sozanský and inspired some of his work. The result was a series of original prints, which incorporated Zahradníček’s verse.

Jiří Sozanský’s partners in the project were the photographer Zdeněk Lhoták and the film director Milan Maryška, who on the topic of "power" contributed photographs from Soviet gulags. The exhibition also included Roman Včelák’s 1990 photogaphs from the prison in Valdice.

The project IN THE SIGN OF POWER - TRIBUTE TO JAN ZAHRADNÍČEK was in four parts: exhibitions at the HOLLAR GALLERY, the gallery MILLENIUM in Prague’s Lesser Town and at the ARCHA theatre and an evening devoted to Zahradníček’s poetry at the same theatre.

In 2002 SYMPOSION held the exhibition LANDSCAPES AN TOWNS OF A DIFFERENT DIMENSION - ten large paintings by Jiří Sozanský and maps and drawnings of aerial views of landscapes - at the National Technical Museum in Prague.

In 2003 SYMPOSION helped restore cultural life after the floods with the project KARLÍN ZONE A, which involved Jiří Sozanský and several other artists. Their inspiration was the borough Karlín, one of the main victims of the natural disaster, and texts by Samuel Beckett. An exhibition of photographs from the performances of the TEATR NOVOGO FRONTA (New Front Theatre) and of BOXART was held at the gallery LITERA in Karlín, while in its streets, on railway embankments and on sundry walls were installed large pictures and artefacts by Jiří Sozanský. They will remain there until 2008.

In November 2003 an exhibition of Jiří Sozanský’s prints, drawings and collages was held in the premises of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament - OUTSIDERS - PEOPLE ON THE FRINGE. Once more Sozanský’s inspiration were Samuel Beckett’s texts, his personal experiences from the 2002 floods and the homeless, a new phenomenon in the Czech Republic.

In 2004 SYMPOSION successfully continued the project KARLÍN ZONE and organized related activities, especially the project’s presentation both in the Czech Republic and abroad (FORUM BARCELONA 2004, EUROFESTATION MAASRICHT 2004). Visitors appreciated not only the works of art, which were part of the travelling exhibition, but also the civic dimensions of the project, i.e. the assistance of volunteers and their participation in subsequent cultural and humanitarian events, which were presented in workshops.

The exhibition ZONE was held in April 2005 under the auspices of Pavel Bém, Lord Mayor of Prague, at the Mánes exibition rooms. This somewhat unusual multimedia project related to two tragedies - the floods that hit Prague in 2002 and the terrorist attack on New York on 11 September 2001. It presented Jiří Sozanský’s powerful oil paintings, Petr Zhoř’s and Zdeněk Lhoták’s photographs and two video documentaries - Michal Baumbruck’s OUTCAST and Marek Dušák’s FROM ZERO.

The most significant activity in 2005 was the project FROM DUST AND ASHES, held under the auspices of the Lord Mayor of Prague, Pavel Bém, to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 10th anniversary of the end of the war in the Balkans. The exhibition in the Cloisters of the Old Town Hall in Prague displayed Jiří Sozanský’s prints and graphic collages with texts of Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt, Viktor Frankel and the commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp Rudolf Höss. Jaroslav Prokop’s photographs acquainted visitors with the performances Jiří Sozanský staged in response to the war in the Balkans.

The second part of the project was Sozanský’s collage displayed on 110 panels in the streets of Prague. The last part of the project was an exhibition at the synagogue NA PALMOVCE in Prague, which opened with a reading (by Jiří Ornest) of texts by Primo Levi, Rudolf Höss and Tadeusz Borowski, with the musical accompaniment of Mikuláš Chadima.

2006 saw the exhibition MONOLOGUES at the Terezín Memorial, which should be seen as a continuation of the project FROM DUST AND ASHES - a cycle of Jiří Sozanský’s prints, drawings and collages with texts of two Czech artists, who paid with their life or persecution and a brutal interruption of their work for their love of freedom - Josef Čapek and Emil Filla.

From the very beginning SYMPOSION involved in its projects tens of artists not only from he Czech Republic, but also from other European countries, from Africa, Asia and America. It works with other non-profit organizations with similar goals and mission, e.g. People in Need, Open Society Fund etc. Since 1999 SYMPOSION has been closely working with the National Volunteer Centre Hestia. Thanks to this cooperation volunteers help SYMPOSION with organizational and administrative jobs.

For the funding of its projects SYMPOSION relies on grants from various ministries - Culture; Education, Youth and Sports; Defence; Labour and Social Affairs. The Prague City Council provides grants and often cooperates on sundry projects. Grants also come from various other bodies,some of which work with SYMPOSION on its projects: ROS Foundation, of the PHARE Programme for the Development of Civic Society, Open Society Fund, Kultur-Kontakt from Austria, Pro Helvetia from Switzerland, the Foundation Preciosa. Moreover, SYMPOSION now and again gets grants from embassies of countries, whose artists participate in SYMPOSION projects. Sponsors of long standing are Metrostav a.s., Real Tisk and some other companies, whose sponsorship is linked to specific projects.

Cultural and humanitarian activities include donations of art works, which SYMPOSION obtained from their authors and donated to the following institutions: to the prison in Valdice a collection of books for the prison library and sculptures by Jiří Sozanský, now in the courtyard of the 3rd section (1990); to the Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice a collection of drawings by Czech and foreign artists, participants in the project BAROQUE AND THE PRESENT (1992-1994); to the National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo, as part of the project Prague - Sarajevo, 25 works by Prague artists (1995); to the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague-Krč Ivan Komárek’s HEART, made for the project PRAGUE - European City of Culture 2002.

SYMPOSION cooperates systematically with the media, in the first place with Czech Television, which in 1992-2004 made eight documentaries about its projects.