COURAGE

connecting collections

Poet, philosopher, architect, urbanist. After graduating with a degree in architecture, he became a disciple of philosopher Béla Hamvas. A few years later, they participated in a series of conversations with Béla Tábor and Lajos Szabó, which made a strong impact on him, and he choose Szabó as his new master. He got a serious infection in 1948, and his arm was paralyzed.

Following the failed Hungarian revolution in 1956, he emigrated with his family (and also with Szabó and his wife) to Brussels, where he studied architecture and urbanism. According to his wife, he preferred conversations to letters, and more than once, triggered by a book, he would locate the author, travel to his home, and ring the bell. This seems to have been the case with Guy Debord in 1960.

Kotányi became involved with the Situationist International (SI) in 1960, the same year he became director of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism in Brussels. He participated in the group’s conferences held in September 1960 in London, August 1961 in Göteborg, and November 1962 in Antwerp. He was appointed to the Central Council of the SI; he participated in the first four sessions held in November 1960 in Brussels, January 1961 in Paris, April 1961 in Munich, and February 1962 in Paris. Kotányi served as the main editor of issues 5, 6, and 8 of Internationale Situationniste, as well as the inaugural issue of Situationistik Revolution, published in October 1962.

He contributed a number of seminal essays to the journal, including Gangland and Philosophy, 1961, Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism, 1961, co-authored with Raoul Vaneigem, and Theses on the Commune, on which he collaborated in 1962 with Debord and Vangeiem. In the summer of 1963, he submitted a proposal (as a private letter) with the outline of a radical reorientation for the movement. The text and he himself were accused of mysticism by Debord, and as a consequence, he was expelled from the group.

Kotányi then relocated to Germany, where he worked as an urbanist and later taught for over a decade at the Dusseldorf Art Academy (the title of his seminar was Anti-architecture). In the 1990s, he returned to Budapest, where, as a series of lectures held at his apartment, he elaborated his Sabbath theory, a call for a radical suspension of activity. A circle of students and young intellectuals gathered around him during these final years.

Pavel Kouba is a Czech philosopher and pupil of Jan Patočka. Kouba studied German and Russian at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. He attended underground philosophical seminars conducted by Jan Patočka from 1973 to 1977. Together with Ivan Chvatík, another of Patočkaʼs students, he cooperated on the samizdat publishing of Patočkaʼs works, and he co-organised underground seminars, even after Patočkaʼs death in 1977. From 1980 to 1989 he worked as a librarian at the Institute of Architecture, Prague City Council. In 1990 he became a research fellow of the Institute of Philosophy of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (later Czech Academy of Sciences), and together with Ivan Chvatík, he founded the Jan Patočka Archives. Having been awarded the research fellowship by the Humboldt Foundation he spent two years (1992–1994) at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster in Germany. Then, he briefly served as a head of the Twentieth Century Philosophy Department at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and in 1995 he joined the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Charles University, where he became an associate professor in 1996. Between 2000 and 2004 he served as director of the Centre of Phenomenological Research, jointly run by the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Charles University. In 2003, Kouba was appointed a professor.

 Pavel Kouba deals mainly with the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, and with Patočkaʼs attempt at their synthesized interpretation. In his studies he focuses on current issues of phenomenological philosophy and hermeneutics (pertaining to H. Arendt, E. Fink, H.-G. Gadamer), since the late 1980s with special emphasis on the interpretation of Nietzsche. His main interest is currently the hermeneutic concept of fundamental ontological problems, in particular the relation between space and time.

Viktor Koval (born in March 1941, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Region, RSFSR) was an engineer who came to the Moldavian SSR (the city of Bălți) in 1974, after previously working in various cities of the Russian Far East and the southern region of European Russia (such as Novorossiisk). Koval was of Russian ethnic background and came to the MSSR along with many other engineers and technicians of Russian extraction who staffed the expanding industrial enterprises of Soviet Moldavia during the 1960s and 1970s. At the time of his arrest in March 1982, Koval had been working for the past five years as a head engineer at an electrical equipment plant, in the section dealing with construction works. According to the material of the official investigation, Koval began to openly express ”anti-Soviet” opinions in late 1977, mainly at his workplace. He was very critical of the Soviet political structure, in general, and the electoral system, in particular, claiming that Soviet citizens lacked any real civil liberties and political rights, while deputies were pre-selected by the party instead of being elected by the people. The KGB correctly identified the Western radio stations which Koval used to listen to (Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, BBC, etc.) as the major sources of his criticism and discontent. This coincided with the regime’s own fears of foreign propaganda, but also proved the real impact of the “enemy stations,” despite Soviet jamming efforts.

The most serious incident linked to Koval’s rejection of “Soviet democracy” occurred on 4 March 1979, when he adamantly refused to take part in the token elections for the Supreme Soviet and argued his position in front of the members of the electoral commission. The case files point to a growing radicalisation of Koval’s views during the next two years. Thus, in early 1980 he criticised the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, claiming that it was in fact a case of brutal interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state rather than an example of “internationalist assistance,” as the official propaganda insisted. Even more serious from the authorities’ perspective was Koval’s open support for Polish Solidarity. In August 1980, he praised the Gdansk workers’ revolt as a model of true democracy and “people’s power,” contrasting it with the sham democratic credentials of the Soviet regime and the purely formal existence of Soviet trade unions. In late 1981, he condemned the brutal police repression of the Solidarity movement and the declaration of the state of siege, viewing these events as a suppression of the people’s will. These opinions led the KGB officials to conclude that they were dealing with a particularly dangerous case of anti-regime attitudes. This was also confirmed by the search of Koval’s apartment, which led to the discovery of a number of papers and notes with an “anti-Soviet” content. He did not spread or propagate his views in written form (aside from the small incident with the leaflets found near his factory in early 1982), but was quite frank in his conversations with his co-workers.

Following the trend of using punitive psychiatry in order to suppress open opposition, Koval was subject to a psychiatric evaluation, which found that he suffered from “latent schizophrenia,” despite the fact that the evidence was not convincing. Rather than receiving a prison sentence, on 27 August 1982 he was sent to a special psychiatric facility of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs located in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine). During the Perestroika period, on the occasion of the Nineteenth Party Conference held in Moscow in June 1988, Koval filed a petition for his release and rehabilitation, claiming that he was punished for his political opinions. However, this petition was rejected by the General Prosecutor of the MSSR in October 1988 on the grounds that Koval’s action was still “socially dangerous.” He was released in May 1990, when Article 203, part 1, of the Penal Code of the MSSR, on which Koval’s conviction was based, was abolished. He was definitively rehabilitated only in November 1991, following a special decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Moldova, which recognised that Koval’s case was political in nature (without explicitly condemning the use of punitive psychiatry). Koval’s fate after his release remains unknown.

András Kovács (1947-) is a sociologist and one of the most significant researchers on the Hungarian Jewish community and Antisemitism in Hungary. He was a member of the democratic opposition and an active participant in the anti-communist movements and the dissemination of samizdat publications. He joined the project launched by Ferenc Erős and András Stark on second-generation Holocaust survivors and played a decisive role in the creation of this interview collection.

Kovács studied philosophy and history and completed his PhD in sociology at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. With his colleagues, he intended to renew the organizations of the Communist Youth League in the Faculty of Humanities in the early 1970s. Kovács was one of the intellectuals who was initially Marxist, but who became disillusioned in 1968, when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded Prague to halt reforms. These young undergraduates no longer believed that the communist system could be reformed, and they gave voice to this opinion. The authorities launched proceedings against Kovács, charging him anti-state incendiarism because of his participation in the reform movement at the university.

After completing his degree, he worked in the editorial office of the Kossuth Publishing House. He continued his activity as a member of the intellectual opposition movement, and he attended numerous seminars held in private apartments. In 1977, the first significant samizdat-book, entitled Marx a negyedik évtizedben (“Marx in the fourth decade”) was published at his initiative. In this manuscript collection, 21 intellectuals gave voice to their (mainly negative) opinion of the relevance of Marx and Marxist philosophy. As a consequence, he was fired. Beginning in the late 1970s, he earned a livelihood by doing ad hoc translation and editing work. He was one of the figures of the important anti-regime movements, so among the authors of the so-called “Bibó Memory Book” and signatories to the Charta 77 statement, which was a protest against the suppression of and reprisals taken against the opposition in Prague.  

Because of his Jewish family origins, he was interested in the issue of the Jewish community after World War II, the suppression of the memory of the Holocaust, and the ways in which the traumas of the Holocaust was passed on from one generation to the next within families. He was also motivated in his career as a scholar by fellowships and a research trip abroad. Kovács had opportunities to pursue research and teaching in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the USA. In the mid-1980s, he began to study Jewish communities and Antisemitism. He joined the project launched by Ferenc Erős and András Stark, and he became a key figure of the interview project on second-generation Holocaust survivors. Kovács has been active in this work since 1984. The interviews which were done on this officially taboo topic had an effect on the interviewers and the interviewees, but also on the larger aim to bring taboos to the foreground and foster discussion among professional audiences and the wider public on issues which were suppressed by the regime.

Erős and Kovács came up with the idea of doing interviews independently. They hoped that both the psychological problems which were of interest to Erős and the sociological issues which were of interest to Kovács could be examined from the perspectives of the stories of individual families. Because the topic of Jewish identity could not be discussed within the framework of official events, it was only discussed in oppositional forums. In December 1984, Kovács and Erős sattended a lecture on the issues faced by the Jewish Community. The lecture was held by the so-called Hétfői Repülő Egyetem (“Monday Flying University”), which was organized by the democratic opposition group. An agent report was written about this event, which took place in János Kenedi’s apartment. The “Flying University” was organized beginning in 1978. It had an audience of between 100 and 200 undergraduates and young intellectuals. Kovács was also invited to a series of debates organized by Csaba Könczöl, a literary historian in the “Fiatal Művészek Klubja” (Young Artists’ Club). Lecturers were asked who could speak about four sensitive topics, topics which according to the regime did not exist: the situation of the Roma, the Jewry and Antisemitism, the Hungarian minorities in the neighbouring countries, and the question of national identity. As Kovács said, this plan harmonized with the oppositional strategy to take advantage of every opportunity and extend the borders of the public sphere. The debate, however, was soon banned. Kovács decided that because he had not been permitted to speak, he would write the text as a samizdat. His paper was published in Zsidóság az 1945 utáni Magyarországon (“Jewry in Hungary after 1945,” a book edited by Péter Kende and printed by Magyar Füzetek or “Hungarian Brochures” in Paris). The publication of this study in the Hungarian periodical Medvetánc constituted big breakthrough (its title was: “Hogyan tudtam meg, hogy zsidó vagyok?” – “How did I find out that I am a Jew?”). The article met with considerable interest, and more and more people joined the project as interviewers or interviewees.

Grzegorz Kowalski – creator of installations, performer, exhibition curator and famous educator. Professor at the Faculty of Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Students of his studio include the most well-known and intriguing figures of Polish contemporary art, mostly members of the “critical art” movement of the 1990s.

Born to an intelligentsia family, he was raised by a single, widowed mother – an economist working in public administration. His father, an engineer, died in the Second World War, during forced labour in Germany. He spent his childhood in the ruins of Warsaw.

In 1959-1965, he studied at the Faculty of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. During his studies, he attended the sculpture studio of Jerzy Jarnuszkiewicz and the Solids and Planes Studio, led by Oskar Hansen, an architect, urban planner and a theoretician of visual arts. Working with them had a strong impact on his own artistic practice and didactics.

He graduated with honours and started teaching at the Academy of Fine Arts soon afterwards. In 1984, he took over the studio from Jarnuszkiewicz and continues to run it to this day, currently under the name of the “Studio of Audiovisual Space”.

Kowalski made his debut at the avantgarde Foksal Gallery – then a prestigious, leading Polish institution with contacts in Western Europe, concentrating pioneers of action art, happening and installations. There, he exhibited his “dynamic environments” and “audiovisual séances” – installations open to the participants' creative actions.

In 1968, he left for a sculpting symposium accompanying the Olympic Games in Mexico City, where he builds the monumental, geometric “Sundial”. Soon afterwards, he is awarded a scholarship and an internship at the University of Illinois in the United States. Kowalski stresses that the year 1968 is a turning point in his biography and self-understanding. He experiences the March '68 antisemitic campaign in Warsaw, the Tlatelolco massacre occurs during his stay in Mexico City and soon after that he follows the invasion in Czechoslovakia from across the ocean.

As he said in a biographical interview: 'While until '68 one would attempt to establish some sort of cooperation within the framework of this regime, simply in order to live and to do something positive... Some form of cooperation was accepted... After '68, there were no illusions anymore – this was a system that could not be reformed in any way, it had to be rejected'. 'I became a dissident' – he adds in reference to this moment.

During his travels through the United States, he also witnessed the explosion of the hippie movement in New York. This experience had a strong and lasting impact on him. He decided to abandon his ambitions of a career as a “symposium artist” and a sculptor of monumental forms, choosing to be active in a small community of people interested in art instead.

Kowalski got involved in a group of artists established by former students of Hansen and Jarnuszkiewicz, centered around a small gallery at the University of Warsaw and Warsaw's high street. Although the space was provided by the party-controlled Polish Students' Association, it had a decidedly “off” air and in time, actions in the gallery were increasingly political and critical toward the authorities. This culminated in participation in a student strike and an occupation of the university just before the imposition of martial law, which led to the closing of both the university and the gallery

However, for those involved in Repassage Gallery, the community itself and the deepening of relations in a small group of friends, a safe haven, were more important than reaching out to a wider audience and creating artifacts. They spoke of “the art of being together” and the primacy of experience before creation. Performative and processual actions co-created by participants dominated. The gallery did not declare a program and refrained from assuming aesthetic and ideological criteria in advance. This resulted in an opening to amateur and naive art, as well as in the rejection of the distinction between artists and non-artists. At the height of its activity, Repassage was led by Elżbieta and Emil Cieślar. Grzegorz Kowalski, who was involved with the gallery for all of its history, can be seen as an “éminence grise” of sorts.

In this environment, Kowalski starts to pose his “basic questions” which were to be answered by means of plastic arts or performances: “Could You and Would You Like to Become an Animal in Front of the Camera?” (1977-78), “Could You and Would You Like to Treat Me Like an Object?” (1979), and “Would You Like to Return to Your Mother's Womb?” (1981-87). Actions with people materialize as “photographic objects”, “tableaus” or “collections”.

In the words of art historian Łukasz Ronduda, Kowalski “attempted to saturate Hansen's quasi-scientific (objective and rationalist) discourse, as well as the paradigm of games and cooperations followed by the master and his students in a similar vein, with a human element: strongly existential, sensual, subjective, irrational, psychologizing, even spiritual”.

The didactic method at Kowalski's studio at the Academy of Fine Arts continues Jarnuszkiewicz's and Hansen's partnership-based approach, drawing from theoretical innovations and a set of exercises developed by the latter, from collective actions carried out by their students – such as Wiktor Gutt, Zofia Kulik, Przemysław Kwiek and the Cieślars – as well as from the countercultural spirit of the community around Repassage.
Kowalski emphasizes that he prefers “education” – developing autonomous artistic personalities – rather than “teaching” – imparting the rules of the craft and historical forms. At the same time, as Karol Sienkiewicz points out, Kowalski's didactic approach is characterized by a tension between the individual and the collective, it is a “search for balance between one's own problems, identity, personality, individual expression and  interpersonal relations, events in collective memory and functioning in society”.