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“We had Underground and now we have Zilch “

January 5, 2009

The Václav Havel Library invites you to an exhibition on Václav Havel with poetry of the Czech Underground 1977-1989.

The exhibition contains texts by Ivan Martin Jirous, Fanda Pánek, Vratislav Brabenec, Jaroslav Hutka and Egon Bondy whose one line served as the title of the whole exposition. Quotes from parts of Havel’s “Long-Distance Interrogation” are utilised, in which he deals with his relationship to the Underground culture. You will also see photographs by Bohdan Holomíček. The vernissage of the exhibition will take place in the Montmartre Gallery (Řetězová 7, Praha 1) on 13th January 2009 at 6 p.m.

Hospodářské noviny is the media partner of the exhibition.

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Letters to Olga – essays written in prison, letter

„I am a child of the age of conceptual, rather than mystical, thought and therefore my god as well – if I am compelled to speak of him (which I do very unwillingly) – must appear as something terribly abstract, vague and unattractive. But it appears so only to someone I try to tell about him – the experience itself is quite vivid, intimate and particular, perhaps (…) more lively than for someone whose “normal” God is provided with all the appropriate attributes (which oddly enough can alienate more often than drawing one closer). And something else that is typical of my god: he is a master of waiting, and in doing so he frequently unnerves me. It is as though he set up various possibilities around me and then waited silently to see what I would do. (…) His Last Judgment is taking place now, continuously, always – and yet it is always the last: nothing that has happened can ever un-happen, everything remains in the “memory of Being” – and I too remain there – condemned to be with myself till the end of time – just as I am and just as I make myself.“

Václav Havel:
Letters to Olga – essays written in prison, letter, August 7, 1980

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