David Černý speaks at Prague Spring 50

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04/12/2018 Added

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David Černý has a conversation with James D. Le Sueur and Patricia A. Simpson at Prague Spring 50. https://praguespring50.unl.edu/speakers#david-cerny

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[00:00:09.777](audience applause)
[00:00:17.899]Can I start?
[00:00:21.392]I wonder David if I could start by asking
[00:00:23.432]what I hope doesn't seem too obvious a question.
[00:00:26.221]You've missed our conversation this week
[00:00:28.851]and we have had some pretty interesting conversations
[00:00:33.309]and debates about the role of Prague Spring
[00:00:36.536]and the role of normalization.
[00:00:38.509]Also the role of the Velvet Revolution
[00:00:40.648]in a kind of lifting of an artistic sensor
[00:00:44.528]and lifting of
[00:00:47.019]constraints.
[00:00:48.684]I know that in previous interviews you've talked
[00:00:51.227]about being not a particularly political person--
[00:00:55.266](mumbles)
[00:00:56.099]But the public nature of your art
[00:01:00.404]does prompt political debate.
[00:01:02.439]I wonder if you would comment on that
[00:01:04.089]and maybe about the nature of the critique in your work
[00:01:08.212]from before
[00:01:10.938]1989 and if and how it has changed afterward.
[00:01:15.737]Okay about first thing.
[00:01:17.073]I'm very sorry,
[00:01:18.054]but I can only hear
[00:01:20.462]you very barely when you don't speak to the main microphone.
[00:01:25.043]So I see, like really terribly,
[00:01:29.214]and hear.
[00:01:30.542]You have to speak to this microphone.
[00:01:33.309]This one.
[00:01:34.142]This one.
[00:01:35.014]Very sorry about that.
[00:01:35.847]Everybody else heard the question but you (laughter).
[00:01:38.529]Yeah.
[00:01:39.362]I wanted to ask you about essentially your
[00:01:43.215]relationship to politics and art
[00:01:46.379]and if and how your relationships to
[00:01:49.656]making art changed after 1989?
[00:01:54.542]Well after the end of the revolution about first thing,
[00:01:58.019]I was a student in art school in that time,
[00:02:02.555]so I was not really
[00:02:05.696]artistically active.
[00:02:08.003]I end up
[00:02:10.323]being interested not being not because it's art.
[00:02:14.374]I ended up being interested,
[00:02:16.241]because of taking a part of some demonstrations.
[00:02:22.374]So
[00:02:24.206]I would say that my
[00:02:27.971]input to the art world
[00:02:30.781]was zero before the end of the Communism
[00:02:34.280]or so-called the end of the Communism
[00:02:36.542]because now it looks like the
[00:02:38.062]Communism was actually never ended.
[00:02:41.434]But
[00:02:42.974]it was more or less
[00:02:46.905]probably the reason
[00:02:48.846]or why the Communism or when the Communism ended
[00:02:52.854]or after the revolution the reason why I actually
[00:02:56.888]stayed in the country
[00:02:59.029]was that so,
[00:03:02.064]and now it's changed,
[00:03:04.806]haa.
[00:03:07.056]It's changed probably completely in a way
[00:03:10.155]as I said that I decided not to integrate,
[00:03:13.443]but to stay in the country.
[00:03:19.520]Could you tell us a little bit more about
[00:03:21.211]your decision not to integrate and to stay in the country?
[00:03:25.739]Well, yes I'm still not sure if it was right or wrong.
[00:03:30.549](laughter)
[00:03:33.358]So that's probably what I'm sort of still thinking about.
[00:03:41.198]Because you know, looking back in what happened
[00:03:45.187]of course the anti-shi'ism we had in,
[00:03:50.128]or about after
[00:03:51.967]1889,
[00:03:53.858]it was quite fantastic and then when
[00:03:57.099]I look what's going on in the state and I
[00:04:02.044]seriously not very satisfied.
[00:04:07.435]I wonder if you could comment on my observation
[00:04:11.195]that some of your works seem to come from a place of anger.
[00:04:15.246]Is that at all true?
[00:04:17.272]For example, the Entropa piece that was so controversial.
[00:04:21.819]Is there a piece in particular that would
[00:04:23.818]characterize as intentionally angry?
[00:04:28.012]Yeah, probably the one which was really that was this one.
[00:04:32.898](laughter)
[00:04:33.731]So, yeah it's actually my--
[00:04:38.512]David, I actually, I had that and I wasn't sure if
[00:04:42.567]we should put it up but, go ahead and do that again.
[00:04:45.151](laughter)
[00:04:46.029]Because this is my blown up hand,
[00:04:50.575]which I obviously put,
[00:04:52.691]which I put in the middle of the river
[00:04:56.546]to show it to the guy who was
[00:05:00.844]the president in Prague, Castle.
[00:05:03.754]Mr. (foreign language) actually knows him very well.
[00:05:08.201]He was serving him for a couple of years.
[00:05:12.440]So, yes
[00:05:15.273]that evil pig
[00:05:16.881]called Zeman.
[00:05:18.764]That was my message to him.
[00:05:20.482]So that really came up with my anger
[00:05:24.273]to those pro Russian assholes,
[00:05:27.592]who are actually now to sitting and being of course
[00:05:33.018]paid by the Russian's to actually get there.
[00:05:39.681]So that's yeah, okay and a couple of others, of course.
[00:05:43.096]But this was probably one latest and the major one.
[00:05:46.923]New York speak about it.
[00:05:49.190]I wonder your original pieces
[00:05:52.123]wasn't there also some (mumbles).
[00:05:56.011]On the painting originally?
[00:05:59.929]No, no, no, no the only thing that was bit different,
[00:06:03.530]but yes there was a bit like you know, that.
[00:06:07.816](laughter)
[00:06:09.999](mumbles)
[00:06:15.206]And who was that directed to?
[00:06:17.652](laughter)
[00:06:20.148]Not an individual?
[00:06:22.783]It was sort of basically towards
[00:06:27.351]the eastern side of the country.
[00:06:31.113]David, I have a question about the pink tank
[00:06:32.941]and when I talked to you this last summer,
[00:06:35.579]you had mentioned that you decided
[00:06:39.504]to paint the tank pink after a party.
[00:06:41.915]You were on the way home with a group of friends
[00:06:43.867]and you decided that you had this inspiration.
[00:06:46.454]But one of the things that you said,
[00:06:48.676]when I talked to you last time,
[00:06:50.140]you said that Hovell wasn't exactly
[00:06:52.654]thrilled that you did it.
[00:06:54.494]Can you talk a little bit about that?
[00:06:57.607]I probably can.
[00:06:59.466]What I know is that
[00:07:01.866]Václav Havel was actually
[00:07:05.186]going from the party that night with,
[00:07:09.746]I think that he was even with the mayor of Prague
[00:07:12.926]and
[00:07:14.791]the guy
[00:07:18.383]who actually was the only one
[00:07:20.814]who known that I'm going to do it,
[00:07:23.414]he told him and they went to see it on the way home.
[00:07:28.663]They went to see it but it was too early,
[00:07:32.022]because we painted early morning, early Sunday morning.
[00:07:39.129]And I think that they went or they were driving
[00:07:42.492]passing by after midnight, shorty after midnight.
[00:07:47.568]So they haven't seen anything.
[00:07:49.173]So he,
[00:07:50.405]probably,
[00:07:53.107]it's of course,
[00:07:54.124]and that time was a political question
[00:07:55.939]that he would known about it or not.
[00:07:59.654]I think I probably spoke about it with him later.
[00:08:04.636]And yes, I think that he did
[00:08:06.981]know that it was going to happen.
[00:08:11.098]I'm gonna flip you a couple more images.
[00:08:13.447]I think you can see them.
[00:08:16.361]No, I can't see you.
[00:08:17.440]Oh, that's right, you can't see them.
[00:08:19.221]Well, I'm showing the baby on the broadcasting tower.
[00:08:23.059]The babies.
[00:08:23.892]Can you talk a little bit about where these can from?
[00:08:27.055]And by the way, David was scheduled to be here.
[00:08:29.684]I should tell the audience that.
[00:08:31.263]He was originally scheduled to be here,
[00:08:33.373]but some of his babies, I think there were 10, you said,
[00:08:37.412]that were on a cargo vessel got that stuck in Panama
[00:08:39.960]on their way to Palm Springs.
[00:08:43.041]That's like those babies.
[00:08:45.237](laughter)
[00:08:46.071]Those babies.
[00:08:46.967]And he is, David is gonna stop through Lincoln
[00:08:50.457]on the way to reunite with those babies
[00:08:52.848]that were delayed in Panama eventually.
[00:08:55.309]Probably in September.
[00:08:56.621]But can you talk a little bit about these babies,
[00:08:59.109]because this is a major feature in Prague.
[00:09:01.688]If you've been to Prague.
[00:09:02.608]Most people in the room's been to Prague.
[00:09:05.262]Where did they come from?
[00:09:06.261]They actually go down,
[00:09:07.443]because they're actually in the containers
[00:09:09.891]on the cargo vessel on the way to California.
[00:09:13.541]These babies, the same ones.
[00:09:15.630]Yeah.
[00:09:17.818]Okay, so where did these babies come from?
[00:09:22.538]Well, the first--
[00:09:23.568](laughter)
[00:09:24.584](audience laughter)
[00:09:32.454](mumbles)
[00:09:41.660]This isn't the birds and the bees question, but you know.
[00:09:45.116](laughter)
[00:09:48.038]Well the original one was actually born in New York City.
[00:09:53.835]And it was meant to be installed in
[00:09:57.938]Chicago Museum of Art.
[00:10:01.238]As a part of one exhibition.
[00:10:05.754]And then it was sort of traveling around the world.
[00:10:08.813]I think one, the original one actually I exhibited
[00:10:14.830]in Omaha, Nebraska, so very close to Lincoln.
[00:10:19.224]Alright.
[00:10:20.744](audience applause)
[00:10:23.240]In '96 or '97, I don't remember exactly.
[00:10:28.133]When I was in Omaha.
[00:10:31.140]And then,
[00:10:35.189]exhibit.
[00:10:37.887]I don't remember, whatever.
[00:10:39.721]After a couple of venues
[00:10:42.446]its ended the original one
[00:10:45.535]which I actually
[00:10:48.822]carved out of the styrofoam in New York in the Broadway.
[00:10:55.473]Added in Prague and then I was asked to do an installation.
[00:11:00.491]So I sort of like reused the idea.
[00:11:02.683]Put it on the tower.
[00:11:04.333]On the Czech TV tower.
[00:11:06.170]So that was the technical
[00:11:09.187]aspect of
[00:11:11.053](mumbles)
[00:11:17.194]and I don't really remember exactly what was behind it.
[00:11:21.063](laughter)
[00:11:22.129]I'm flipping through some pictures
[00:11:23.151]of you for the audience here.
[00:11:24.980]Okay.
[00:11:25.813]The one with your pilot.
[00:11:27.678]David's a pilot, by the way.
[00:11:29.990]And that may or may not be your real pilot gear.
[00:11:32.521]I'm not really sure what kind of plane you fly,
[00:11:36.219]but that's fine.
[00:11:37.482]Now I have the photos of the guns.
[00:11:39.683]There are four guns.
[00:11:42.145]Can you explain where this image came from in your mind?
[00:11:46.299]I don't know what image you're using,
[00:11:51.776]so--
[00:11:52.609]probably one of those four pointing guns against each other.
[00:11:58.633]Well, that sort of
[00:12:01.474]was along time ago
[00:12:03.598]also, I was thinking about the design of the guns
[00:12:07.545]and
[00:12:08.875]how about
[00:12:13.396]the utilitarian of the handguns.
[00:12:16.414]Because the handguns.
[00:12:18.062]You have the rifles which can be
[00:12:22.461]or might be theoretically used for hunting or whatever.
[00:12:26.564]But the handguns are poorly used for killing people also.
[00:12:31.420]You won't be hunting with a handgun.
[00:12:34.046]You basically use it.
[00:12:38.173]Of course it's defense,
[00:12:40.404]but even in defense
[00:12:43.222]the moment you use it
[00:12:45.801]as killing a person.
[00:12:47.310]You don't really use the handgun for killing a lion,
[00:12:52.336]it doesn't get really.
[00:12:56.217]So, I was thinking about the design of the handgun
[00:12:59.607]and this particular one is Berretta.
[00:13:02.671]Which you'll see as the police gun also in states.
[00:13:07.571]So it's, I was sort of like focusing on the design
[00:13:11.666]and of course, if you look at the gun,
[00:13:14.432]it's what I was interested about.
[00:13:18.587]The utilitarian way how to use a gun
[00:13:21.461]and how to make design
[00:13:24.341]and then I end up with the idea (mumbles) like a guns
[00:13:28.695]which are pointing to each other,
[00:13:30.101]so it's about, kind of like an abstraction probably.
[00:13:33.960]Okay.
[00:13:34.793]Now to ask questions.
[00:13:37.427]That particular sculpture would have great
[00:13:39.373]deal of resonance in the United States right now.
[00:13:41.453]But I wanted to shift gears and talk about-
[00:13:45.678]Can you speak in that microphone?
[00:13:48.828]Perfect.
[00:13:49.661]Okay, I just wanted to shift gears a little bit
[00:13:51.687]and talk about another sculpture that was brought up
[00:13:53.727]this morning in presentation by (foreign language).
[00:13:58.689]And it's the Kafka head, it's the rotating massive
[00:14:01.998]Kafka head and I what I believe,
[00:14:03.903]it's the pedestrian mall, like a shopping mall.
[00:14:07.127]Could you talk a little bit about some of the artistic
[00:14:10.250]decisions that you made in conceptualizing
[00:14:13.667]and executing or realizing the Kafka head?
[00:14:17.365]Okay, sure it was private acquisition or request
[00:14:24.570]well sort of by the architect
[00:14:26.387]and also by the developer
[00:14:29.289]of that complex.
[00:14:31.533]And it is in the center of Prague
[00:14:34.602]in the street which is called Narodni, which means National.
[00:14:41.884]So the place sits on National Street
[00:14:45.934]and
[00:14:47.332]also it sits between the City Hall
[00:14:51.482]and the place where Franz Kafka was
[00:14:55.654]actually working as the clerk so
[00:14:59.329]he was the clerk in the insurance company.
[00:15:04.927]Like 50 meters next by that spot.
[00:15:08.863]So what I was thinking about what that spot is
[00:15:13.496]and also the name of the National Street,
[00:15:17.683]I was thinking what the nation
[00:15:24.835]and what the national aspect of the
[00:15:27.946]residence of Prague.
[00:15:29.491]And Prague residents before the second World War
[00:15:34.450]were certainly like (mumbles) or Germans
[00:15:39.922]where Jewish and the rest were probably Czechs
[00:15:44.364]or it probably wasn't exactly those numbers, but very close.
[00:15:49.695]And Kafka
[00:15:51.690]as the
[00:15:56.383]Czech,
[00:15:58.784]supposed to be a Czech writer.
[00:16:01.881]But he was German writing.
[00:16:04.769]He was of course, fluently Czech speaking
[00:16:07.435]but he was writing
[00:16:09.409]in German
[00:16:11.314]and he was Jewish.
[00:16:13.975]So he sort of made this essence
[00:16:20.156]of the residence
[00:16:23.236]of Prague or what used to be the residence of Prague.
[00:16:26.284]So that's one thing and of course,
[00:16:28.249]in that moment, I was thinking about what
[00:16:31.537]and he is the symbol of the Prague,
[00:16:33.707]because there are jokes about what Prague is a Kafka city.
[00:16:39.401]And so there are a lot of aspects
[00:16:42.059]and I relate beside if many, I enjoy the moment when you
[00:16:46.021]go to actually get something cleared in the City Hall.
[00:16:51.337]And of course, after three hours of being in the City Hall,
[00:16:53.975]you get completely confused and like haven't sold anything,
[00:16:57.807]so you get out and then you have the Kafka guy rotating.
[00:17:01.107](laughter)
[00:17:01.940]So you know, smiling.
[00:17:02.983](laughter)
[00:17:06.038]And all those guys who work in City Hall are watching
[00:17:10.629]that Kafka head.
[00:17:12.219]So it's like great inspiration for them.
[00:17:16.129]Okay,
[00:17:17.068]I've read that you are very committed to having
[00:17:20.174]your work displayed in public, not so much in museums
[00:17:23.942]but in public spaces.
[00:17:26.001]Could you just talk a little bit about what you think
[00:17:29.326]the role of art is in everyday life in public spaces?
[00:17:36.915]It's very interesting.
[00:17:39.411]A long
[00:17:42.744]philosophical question.
[00:17:44.359]What is the role of art?
[00:17:46.628]I don't know what the hell is the role of art at all.
[00:17:51.988]It's probably--
[00:17:53.177]Well art in public spaces then (laughter).
[00:17:56.456]Okay, so why I prefer to work in public spaces is that,
[00:18:02.018]simply because if you go to
[00:18:05.585]or if you do an art which is meant to be in
[00:18:10.452]art devoted space, you can probably do whatever you want,
[00:18:15.086]but it's different when you actually exposing
[00:18:18.120]the people to some of
[00:18:20.753]your thoughts or ideas,
[00:18:23.227]or whatever
[00:18:25.260]and you probably have to more
[00:18:29.001]deal with what is going to be the exhibit or not.
[00:18:33.636]So I'm sort of enjoying,
[00:18:36.705]I'm enjoying
[00:18:38.228]personally the moment when I can hit somebody who is not.
[00:18:43.269]If you go to the gallery, you're expecting you're
[00:18:46.476]going to see an art, blah.
[00:18:49.429]You know so you see a dead animal.
[00:18:51.758]It's not dead animal, it's an art,
[00:18:54.642]because you know, you see whatever
[00:18:57.699]you see in the gallery is an art.
[00:19:01.213]If you do it on the open space
[00:19:04.863]or public space,
[00:19:06.919]you dealing with a different feeling,
[00:19:09.525]so that's what I personally enjoy about it.
[00:19:15.043]Okay, I'm gonna ask you about.
[00:19:17.389]I have on display for the audience.
[00:19:19.914]They can see your installation at the EU.
[00:19:23.885]The one that you were
[00:19:27.026]well known
[00:19:29.775]for doing.
[00:19:30.907]And
[00:19:33.719]it was a bit of a prank, you might say.
[00:19:36.438](laughter)
[00:19:37.271]It was a little bit prank, yeah.
[00:19:39.076](laughter)
[00:19:42.061]I asked you where babies came from, so.
[00:19:44.466]I wanna know now where this idea came from.
[00:19:46.929]The European Union piece which is probably your
[00:19:52.166]one of your most controversial pieces.
[00:19:56.160]I know the story 'cause you told me in December.
[00:19:59.771]But can you tell the audience a little bit
[00:20:01.353]about how this piece came about?
[00:20:04.851]Well, I was seriously asked by the Prime Minister
[00:20:09.271]of European Affairs in that time Alexandr Vondra,
[00:20:15.565]was good friend of (foreign language), so.
[00:20:19.105]I was asked when
[00:20:21.763]the Czech Republic supposed to have leadership
[00:20:26.340]in EU committee.
[00:20:28.358]I was asked to because it was normal that the
[00:20:34.532]leader country had usually some installation in
[00:20:39.623]European, what do you call it?
[00:20:42.606]House of Justice, I think.
[00:20:44.502]I think it's called House of Justice.
[00:20:50.022]He asked me if I would be willing to propose something
[00:20:55.325]and I said, okay, I can think about it.
[00:20:57.853]So,
[00:21:00.641]I'd been flown to Brussels.
[00:21:04.237]I look around, it's nice space in the halls, kinda cool.
[00:21:09.913]So I was thinking about what should fate
[00:21:14.687]and that was the idea and I sort of (mumbles)
[00:21:19.107]as you mentioned that I was a pilot but then of course,
[00:21:21.891]as a child I was putting together
[00:21:24.276]the small air fixed kits, you know.
[00:21:27.971]And I reused that
[00:21:30.471]in '90s,
[00:21:32.431]so one of my sculptures.
[00:21:34.947]So you basically have this blown up assembly kit.
[00:21:39.102]It has different names.
[00:21:42.242]So you see the images or the image?
[00:21:45.470]I'm not sure,
[00:21:46.980]but
[00:21:48.405]I reused the idea of something
[00:21:52.775]which sort can be put together
[00:21:55.304]or can be assembled or disassembled.
[00:21:58.154]Because the European Union is great idea
[00:22:01.455]which I see where supported
[00:22:04.668]and
[00:22:06.934]but the
[00:22:09.668](mumbles)
[00:22:14.457]that everybody actually wants to keep the European Union.
[00:22:18.779]Okay, sorry about that, go ahead.
[00:22:23.253]Can you hear me?
[00:22:24.600]Yeah I can hear.
[00:22:28.952]So that was behind it.
[00:22:30.328]So the idea was that, let's sort of deepen
[00:22:33.768]the European in the way that it can
[00:22:35.682]be put together or disassembled.
[00:22:38.096]So that was the question.
[00:22:39.232]Is it going to be assembled or disassembled?
[00:22:41.812]So you the kit, you have the
[00:22:44.882]sort of showing okay, you people
[00:22:47.820]have the option to put it together
[00:22:50.833]or break it apart.
[00:22:53.657]So that was it, that was the first idea.
[00:22:56.215]And then I began to thinking how to do it.
[00:22:59.300]And there were like many, many, many ways.
[00:23:02.953]I even proposed to
[00:23:05.961]Alexandr that
[00:23:07.751]I would either do it by myself
[00:23:09.905]or maybe I'll put it together by different
[00:23:12.239]artists from different countries.
[00:23:15.949]I would actually ask the artist from the
[00:23:18.916]neighbor country to do the neighbors,
[00:23:22.135]so it would be much, much probably funnier.
[00:23:25.801]Then in the end I decided with my friends,
[00:23:29.963]that we would do it who I invited to cooperate
[00:23:32.793]that we will do it by ourselves.
[00:23:35.984]But,
[00:23:37.566]yes we kept the
[00:23:40.539]sort of as a prank
[00:23:41.789]that the countries are going to be actually created
[00:23:45.911]by particular artist from particular countries.
[00:23:50.771]Which was not true.
[00:23:52.432]We completely make out,
[00:23:55.323]or made up all the artists
[00:23:57.703]as the fake figures and we present that they exist.
[00:24:02.585]And of course, the depicting of the
[00:24:07.685]countries who are in a certain
[00:24:09.645]case in particular individuals.
[00:24:13.830]When we were after the unveiling
[00:24:17.653]a lot of politicians of the European countries,
[00:24:22.847]including the (mumbles) and the medical
[00:24:25.197]and all of the leaders were actually quite
[00:24:30.079]hard complaining.
[00:24:32.195]Why we showing them
[00:24:35.617]like German swastikas
[00:24:37.570]and Britain was sexually missing
[00:24:40.208]and you know couple of things which were
[00:24:43.566]a little bit considered to be not polite enough
[00:24:47.847]or whatever, of course, it was just fine, nothing else.
[00:24:53.345]And whatever, some of the country essentially send
[00:24:56.910]official protest notes so some of the,
[00:24:59.821]one of the countries had to be official covered.
[00:25:05.127]And
[00:25:07.519]it was the funny part of the whole thing.
[00:25:12.136]Does it make sense?
[00:25:16.750]I think it's making a lot of sense.
[00:25:18.162]We have a couple of, I think there's suppressed applause
[00:25:22.984]at the moment so we'll be getting to that at a little while.
[00:25:26.476]Maybe we should open it up to questions?
[00:25:28.432]We are, we are opening it up to questions.
[00:25:30.464]Perfect.
[00:25:31.297]And so, we've asked some of the audience to come
[00:25:33.384]and to join in and ask you a question.
[00:25:35.790](laughter)
[00:25:38.578]Chovoy.
[00:25:39.796](laughter)
[00:25:42.617](foreign language)
[00:25:48.701]Why didn't you come?
[00:25:50.276](foreign language)
[00:25:52.803]Oh okay, okay.
[00:25:54.194](foreign language)
[00:25:55.376]Well you're missing out great fun.
[00:25:56.606]I had the best steak today.
[00:25:58.302]Yes, of course I know I'm missing great fun.
[00:26:00.790]But I had a lot of fun here too.
[00:26:02.791]Okay, I believe that.
[00:26:04.113]It's very nice even today in Kampa.
[00:26:07.090]Don't name her name.
[00:26:08.779](laughter)
[00:26:10.478]Okay, see ya later.
[00:26:12.529]So, you're the only audience?
[00:26:14.815]Yeah.
[00:26:16.025](audience laughter)
[00:26:17.498]Yeah, we planned this all along.
[00:26:18.930]It was just Thomas and I and Patty.
[00:26:20.873](laughter)
[00:26:22.006]Anybody, who would like to come up
[00:26:23.615]and ask David Cerny a question?
[00:26:24.901]We have time for maybe two questions.
[00:26:27.131]Someone from the audience, please.
[00:26:30.716]Someone brave.
[00:26:31.777](audience laughter)
[00:26:37.711]You have never been ambivalent
[00:26:39.237]about coming and asking questions.
[00:26:40.899]Okay, go ahead.
[00:26:43.447]My (mumbles) is next year so they can save their
[00:26:47.357]questions for me being there personally.
[00:26:50.544](mumbles)
[00:26:51.377]Ah, what was that?
[00:26:52.230](mumbles)
[00:26:57.113](talking lowly)
[00:27:04.211]Question from the audience is,
[00:27:06.187]do you see any relationship or is there a connection
[00:27:09.858]between your work and Maurizio Cattelan's?
[00:27:14.390]Well yes, of course, Catalans has stoled a couple
[00:27:17.076]of my things so I decided to steal a lot of his.
[00:27:20.440](audience laughter)
[00:27:26.724]Another question?
[00:27:28.676]We'll interpret for you.
[00:27:30.917](woman talking)
[00:27:52.264]Okay, question from Mila Sanscova Pearce who is the
[00:27:55.800]honorary counsel for the Czech Republic
[00:27:58.970]here in the state of Nebraska.
[00:28:01.217]She asked about going back to the question about
[00:28:03.906]public art and whether you have any trouble placing
[00:28:07.658]your works in public or with some of
[00:28:10.586]the officials responses to your work?
[00:28:12.978]Mila is that sort of right?
[00:28:15.241]Sort of right.
[00:28:17.406]Yeah well I do have a lot of trouble installing.
[00:28:22.361]I always say that installing anything in
[00:28:26.857]public is the most difficult thing
[00:28:30.962]on that it's not actually making the sculpture,
[00:28:35.143]but getting the approval.
[00:28:39.185]As with everything.
[00:28:44.338]The approval and stamp.
[00:28:47.683]And a quick followup is, what are their views.
[00:28:50.961]What are the views of the officials?
[00:28:53.465]What are the views of the officials?
[00:28:56.131](woman talking)
[00:28:59.025]The administrators and--
[00:29:00.783](woman talking)
[00:29:02.633]Or like municipal officials, administrators,
[00:29:05.711]mayors, we'll call it, yeah.
[00:29:09.570]Yeah, sure it's weird but too much knows about it.
[00:29:14.206]None of the installations which are around Prague
[00:29:18.794]were actually anyhow connected with municipality
[00:29:24.929]and most of the things which I actually have around Prague
[00:29:30.250]are private.
[00:29:31.333]No one owned by the city or by City Hall,
[00:29:36.099]no one.
[00:29:36.990]So everything is private property for my property.
[00:29:41.981]So it's, you know and everybody's asking.
[00:29:45.620]How did you manage to actually get all of those things
[00:29:48.452]done with the municipality, I said no.
[00:29:50.348]I don't work with municipalities.
[00:29:53.365](audience laughter)
[00:29:56.222]And that answered the question.
[00:29:58.756]Should we?
[00:29:59.589]Yeah.
[00:30:00.422]Close it down?
[00:30:01.255]Yeah any other questions?
[00:30:02.343]Maybe one more?
[00:30:03.176]One more question.
[00:30:04.009]Basically, I would say most of questions to me
[00:30:07.648]Thomas can answer with good English.
[00:30:10.345](audience laughter)
[00:30:13.284]He's confirming that with a thumbs up.
[00:30:17.098]Any other questions?
[00:30:19.064]Oh yes, one more question.
[00:30:21.595](man talking)
[00:30:28.809]The Me Factory, he wants to know about the
[00:30:30.415]involvement and the programming Me Factory this year.
[00:30:33.070]What do you have planned?
[00:30:35.284]Well, the Me Factory is yes, it is my project
[00:30:38.999]which I've been, I've worked on.
[00:30:44.504]I've spent a lot of time on it.
[00:30:46.142]But a while ago, in this moment
[00:30:48.072](mumbles) works pretty well by itself
[00:30:50.929]and I'm pretty glad about that.
[00:30:54.165]I did it because when I came back from New York,
[00:30:59.188]I really enjoyed being in PS1
[00:31:02.689]and I decided that we (mumbles)
[00:31:07.111]missing unfortunately
[00:31:08.700]foreign artists to actually be able to come,
[00:31:12.922]see, work,
[00:31:14.905]bring some ideas,
[00:31:18.015]bring some
[00:31:22.252]materials back.
[00:31:28.039]Well David, thank you very much.
[00:31:30.158]Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Lincoln,
[00:31:32.432]thanks you for joining us today
[00:31:34.600]and we'll see you sometime--
[00:31:36.445]Thank you.
[00:31:37.278]On the rendezvous with the babies.
[00:31:38.670]Thank you very much, peace out.
[00:31:40.991](audience applause)
[00:31:42.803](audience cheers)
[00:31:46.882](foreign language)
[00:31:48.931]Bye David, I'll see ya this summer, bye.

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David Černý speaks at Prague Spring 50

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