Over 1600 people have signed the petition for changes at AVU and in the National Gallery

Prague – Over 1600 people have signed an online call for changes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU) and the National Gallery (NG). The petition, supported by over 90 Czech artists, demands the resignation of AVU Rector Mária Topolčanská and the restructuring of the AVU and National Gallery institutions. According to a statement from the academy sent to ČTK, AVU is a diverse school whose leadership defends the rights to free artistic expression of teachers. The Student Chamber of the Academic Senate of AVU defended Rector Topolčanská in its statement, labeling the text of the call as misleading in many respects. NG Director Alicja Knastová previously stated that she did not participate in the selection of Eva Koťátková's project for the Venice Biennale, which is criticized in the petition – it was chosen by a jury from over 20 proposals.

Among the signatories of the petition are former AVU Rector Milan Knížák, sculptor Jaroslav Róna, David Černý, Jan Svěrák, architect Josef Pleskot, Jan Hřebejk, Lubomír Typlt, writer Jáchym Topol, or painter Jan Gemrot. The text was published by Barbora Šlapetová, the wife of former AVU teacher Lukáš Rittstein, who was dismissed by Topolčanská last year for attempted cheating and unethical behavior, as the rector stated on Czech Television. According to the petition, the current AVU is abandoning its educational mission "in favor of new fleeting ideologies and activist tendencies relevant to the times". In the letter, it is also stated that the academy is currently not guiding young people toward their own artistic expression but rather to team-based activism. They cited the recent artistic performance by Kateřina Olivová, who, in front of the AVU building, distributed soil naked while techno music played. AVU previously stated that nudity has been a part of art since prehistory.

The Student Chamber of the Academic Senate of AVU labeled the petition as uninformed and misleading in many respects. The chamber objected to the information from the petition that two students died during a foreign trip from the studio from drug overdoses last year. "The exploitation of the tragic death of our classmate and his girlfriend, which affected our entire community, is absolutely unacceptable; we must refute the claim that it was a studio outing, and therefore this incident fell outside the academy's responsibility. We demand a written apology from the petition's author addressed to the deceased's families and the academy," the statement reads.

"The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague is a diverse school whose leadership defends the rights to free artistic expression of teachers, female teachers, and students. It actively participates in international cooperation in networks of art schools and in the field of artistic research. Students, teachers, and graduates of AVU regularly represent the school and the Czech Republic at significant international art exhibitions and festivals," stated AVU spokesperson Petra Švecová.

Artists criticize the National Gallery for the Czech project at the Venice Biennale. "The entire institution (Knastová) is dragging into insignificance and is waving the most fleeting contemporary ideologies. In practice, this means that the Venice Biennale is presenting the story of a giraffe brought from Kenya at a time when communists were executing Milada Horáková and others," the artists wrote. Knastová previously stated that she had no influence on the project selection as it was chosen by a professional jury. She added that she believes it is partly a generational dispute because the signatories of the letter are from a different generation than the author Koťátková. The American magazine Artnews included the Czech pavilion and Koťátková's project among the ten best pavilions of the biennale.

The letter also addresses changes in the awarding of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, which was a recognition for artists under 35 years old. A group of artists objects to the fact that the award has now become non-competitive, with all finalists winning, and that the age limit for award recipients has been abolished.