Prague Journal

Tuesday, February 22, 2005.

As I left the apartment for an early-morning Czech class, I had an opportunity to finally meet young Mr. Stok who lives in the basement of our building with his girlfriend. He works for a British-owned insurance brokerage, whose headquarters are in Budapest. There are only seven employees in Prague, but there are over 100 throughout Europe.
There are only three of us in the intermediate Czech class at VŠE. I am the most advanced, but it is a good level for me since I have so little time to study these days. The class gives me an opportunity to review things I learned long ago, and also to speak and practice common phrases and expressions. Mrs. Antošová has a nice way of explaining all the various forms and cases, most of which are slowly creeping back from my more intensive studies seven years ago. I can understand much more than I can say, partly because forming the proper case and word order is difficult, but also because I still struggle with pronunciation. (There are some sounds I rarely say correctly, and it is little comfort that Czechs, especially Praguers, mispronounce many of these same words).
I met with Martin from 10:45-11:30 to discuss the chapter and cases for the textbook, and also to talk about the class I will teach for him on Friday. I then met with Eva until 1:30 to talk about the paper we’re writing for a conference together and the interview appointment she has scheduled for us on Thursday. Most deadlines are the end of March, so we have a bit of breathing time on paper. In fact, we will have little time to work on these things, given other commitments over the next few weeks. After a quick lunch in the school cafeteria—where we ran into nearly half of the Managerial Psychology department—Eva ran off to class and I decided to come home before heading out for the evening.
It’s been snowing all day, so it’s nice to be inside. The view from my window is prettier than the view from the bus- or tram-stop. The Prague-Ruzyne airport closed at noon today for nearly four hours because of poor visibility as a result of the snowstorm. Last week, the airport was closed for ten hours and 71 flights were cancelled.
Rick and I were invited to the closing of the exhibit of “Certain Traces, New Dialogues: Los Angeles/Prague,” at the Kampa Museum, along with Fulbright alumni and art patrons. http://www.clubmagazine.cz/2004_04/pdf/page_94.pdf Barbara Benish, an America artist and former Fulbrighter who has been living in Prague for the past 11 years, guided our tour of the exhibition. We were also treated to a commentary by art historian Sarah Brock, curator of the museum and Prague resident since 1993.
“Certain Traces” is a 15-year commemoration of the historic Dialogue: Prague / Los Angeles show of 1989/1990 that defied Communist sanctions and presaged the final dissolution of communist Czechoslovakia. As an anniversary event, Certain Traces celebrates the achievement of the original show and expands the original concept of open dialogue to explore the meaning of creative discourse for a diverse group of artists from Los Angeles and Prague in a newly defined open society. http://interactive.usc.edu/archives/002471.html The original show gathered 12 Czech artists willing to risk official sanction to take part in an open artist exchange with 12 Los Angeles counterparts.
We also got a chance to see an exhibition of paintings by Catherine Cabaniss, the wife of the American Ambassador. While it’s easy to say that her works were displayed there because she’s the wife of the ambassador, the truth is, she is quite an accomplished artist, and her works fit perfectly with the museum and especially with the room they were displayed in, which overlooks the Vltava River.
The Kampa museum has an interesting history. It has only been open for little more than a year, having had to postpone its original opening because of the floods in 2002. From roughly the 10th century until devastated by fire in 1896, the building was a mill. Reconstructed in stone in the late 16th century, the mill was used by the Swedish army during the thirty years wars. Different parts of the complex were used over the years to house a family apartment, wood and metal workshops, and, finally, part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Science. It is only because of the efforts of Meda Mladek and her late husband Jan that the building has been turned into an inspiring, light-filled space that houses the largest and most important collection of modern central European art in the world. The Mladeks collected works by Czech artists, most notably František Kupka, Jiři Kolař, and Otto Guttfreund, and brought them to Prague shortly after the 1989 revolution. Some of the works on permanent display are haunting sculptures done by artists who were teenagers when the revolution took place, caught up in the social consciousness and protests of the time when their art was prevented from being exhibited.

posted by JWinn @ 11:18 PM