COURAGE

connecting collections

Among the climbing items that could not be improvised, and which indeed it was not advisable to try to improvise, Dragoș Petrescu points to two in particular: climbing rope and karabiners. “In both cases, you’re playing with your life if you try to improvise,” he emphasises. “My father was at mathematics congress in Greece and he brought me from Athens a Simond karabiner (French) made of Zicral (zinc-aluminium alloy). In the mid-1980s, it was something exceptional to have that kind of thing in Romania; it was very light; it had a safety catch, and it was very sturdy. I received it in 1984. It is historic, I might say, and has a great affective role for me.” Around the same time two Bonaiti karabiners (an Italian firm now called Kong) came into his collection. They had belonged to one of the great Romanian climbers of the time: Mihai Pupeza. “My acquisition of the Bonaiti karabiners happened in 1983, or more likely early 1984. These were items that had to be procured from the West and they were truly the essence of mountaineering equipment. They were, in a sense, the keystone of the personal equipment with which we went to the mountains,” says Dragoș Petrescu. All three karabiners are to be found today in his private collection and are in perfect working order.

At the beginning of 1983, the Czech photographer Jindřich Štreit began a discussion with Jan Švankmajer, a prominent Czech artist and animator, about the possibility of holding an exhibition of the Surrealist group in Czechoslovakia at the premises of the former Sovinec school. The preliminary date of the exhibition was scheduled for May to June 1983. Štreit knew from the beginning that it would not be easy. That is why he had written a request for permission for the exhibition from the Local National Committee in Jiříkov. On this occasion, he also applied for the possibility of publishing a small catalogue for the exhibition, which also succeeded. The catalogue eventually remained as the only evidence after an unrealized exhibition.

The central motto of the exhibition was the sentence, "No tyrant can forbid dreams". Soon it turned out that the opposite was true. After a few months of preparation with Alena Nádvorníkova, František Dryje and Martin Stejskal, which other members of the group attended, and after the demanding installation process, which was carried out by Jindřich Štreit two days before the planned opening with Jan and Eva Švankmajer, the exhibition was cancelled. On Friday 6 May 1983, the afternoon when the exhibition was ready, Bruntal State Security officials arrived and ordered the exhibition not to be opened and to be removed as soon as possible. The exhibition stayed on until Saturday 7 May 1983, when visitors started to arrive in the morning. On the planned Saturday opening, one of the other artists, Albert Marenčín and his wife, travelled from Slovakia. In this situation, nothing could have been done. From Saturday morning, State Security members stood in the square and in front of the building of the former school where the exhibition was installed and watched who went to the exhibition. On the same day Jindřich Štreit also summoned the morning brigade of the citizens of the village to repair the water reservoir. A cluster of working people served as a security filter for visitors from the morning. Everyone who went to the exhibition was familiar with the situation and was warned about the danger of confrontation with the State Security. On Sunday 8 May 1983, the situation was repeated, but on a smaller scale. That day the show had to be shut down. An extensive collection composed of the works of the so-called second surrealist generation has not been seen ever since.

Encouraged personally by István Márkus, in 1983 he joined ​the rural village sociological research project led by Márkus and István Fekete in Homokmégy, and then he took over as head of the project. The early 1980s were a remarkable phase of activity, documented in the Collection of Political Transition, resulting in the rise of oppositional attitudes. Several social scientists who were regarded as opposition personalities contributed to these village research projects. Some of the documents of the Collection are linked to the rural sociology research.

On 13 February 1983, a work day of Noor-Tartu (Young-Tartu) took place which was announced under the slogan ‘Ära karda kedagi ega midagi!’ (Don't be afraid of anybody or anything!), which was enough for the authorities. The movement was forbidden to use the name Noor-Tartu. Also, scare tactics began in the spring to keep students away from the movement. The conditions for the movement were unclear at that time, which led to its inevitable end. 

The Budapest-Vienna-Berlin telephone concert, which was held on April 15, 1983, was an extraordinary telecommunication event which took place simultaneously in Vienna (studio of the Österreichische Kultur-Service), Berlin (Auf und Abbau Gallery), and Budapest (Artpool Studio). Artpool got in contact with the organizer of the event, media artist Robert Adrian X, through János Vető. The Artpool Letter published a report on the event (AL 4, 1983).