Miloš Šejn

“First, I abolished the traditional idea of capturing landscapes by either using one’s memory or, being out in plein air, having a canvas on the stand and capturing whatever one sees in front of him. My fundamental gesture included abolishing the stand. The canvas lost its frame, it was put down on the ground and the depiction of the landscape became a sort of a map of my relationship to the place. It was about me being present there and somehow seizing the place. Moreover, I progressively realized the importance of me being there, of my body. That relationship between the body and the place. In some of my later works I then worked with the body on purpose and in some other works I worked on purpose with the place. And since at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s I adopted new media, I eventually reached an idea of something total which I call the transparent body.”

“Thanks to him I learned about a newspaper advert and a deadline for applications for the job which was about to be the next day. And he told me to do something about it. So I called the number at once. Immediately someone from the student strike committee picked it up and told me: ‘Ok, that’s fine, come tomorrow.’ In the evening I collected my entire portfolio. I was always keeping good track of my works so I had a large portfolio. When I arrived to Prague I walked towards the Academy of Fine Arts which I knew from very different contexts. I was just about to grab the handle from the main door but then it itself started opening. The door opened and Milan Grygar walked out of the building. I knew him because I prepared one of his exhibitions. He told me: ‘Art can’t be taught. I wish you best of luck.’”

“Naturally, I knew the artworks of those people. Visually, I couldn’t relate to it much, perhaps with the exception of František Skála and Petr Nikl. Róna’s work with figurativeness was not my cup of tea because it contradicted what I was heading towards. Furthermore, at that time the attempt to make an economic breakthrough smelled of a nod to the regime. I am not joking now at all. In retrospect, some of those people’s characters were confirmed by their later statements. Such as in the memories of Vladimír Körner who likes to tell the story about him being the first who got fired by Václav Marhoul from the Barrandov Film Studios for uselessness. One mustn’t forget that Václav Marhoul was practically the head of the group. So this is not at all funny. And the way some of the members of the group presented themselves – Jiří David above all – it’s… I’d rather not get into detail here.”