In the petition against AVU, there are personal attacks and disinformation, stated the vice-rectors of AVU

Prague – A recently published petition demanding the resignation of the rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (AVU), Mária Topolčanská, according to the school's vice rectors, mixes objective issues with personal attacks and disinformation. In a response sent to ČTK today, they stated that the specificity of this generational dispute is that older artists are rebelling against the young, which has historically been the opposite. The petition, signed by over 90 Czech artists, calls for the replacement of the AVU rector, the restructuring of AVU and the National Gallery, as well as changes to the Jindřich Chalupecký Awards (CJCH).

Signatories of the petition include former AVU rector Milan Knížák, sculptor Jaroslav Róna, David Černý, Jan Svěrák, architect Josef Pleskot, Michal Rittstein, and writer Jáchym Topol. The text was published by Barbora Šlapetová, the wife of former AVU educator Lukáš Rittstein, who was dismissed by Topolčanská last year for attempted fraud and unethical behavior, the rector stated on Czech Television.

According to the petition, the current AVU resigns from its educational mission "in the interest of new ephemeral ideologies and activist tendencies compliant with the times." In the letter, the authors also write that the academy now does not guide young people toward their own artistic expression, but towards team activism. They cited a recent artistic performance by studio leader Kateřina Olivová, during which she, naked and to the sound of techno music, spread soil in front of the AVU building. To this, AVU previously stated that nudity has been part of art since prehistoric times.

The response sent to ČTK was provided by the vice rector and vice rectors Jana Bernartová, Anetta Mocha Chisa, Šárka Krtková, and Vít Havránek. According to them, AVU should be a meeting place for personalities of various generations, identities, origins, and focuses. "We will therefore not devote extensive space to explaining why AVU is taught not only by old men and their students, but by a much wider spectrum of personalities – we consider this self-evident," states the letter.

According to the vice rectors, AVU students belong to a generation whose worldview differs greatly from that of today's fifty- or sixty-year-olds. "The clash of the old with the new is a natural, periodically recurring phenomenon in the artistic world. The specificity of the current situation is simply the fact that the older generation is rebelling against the young, which is usually the opposite," the academy representatives added. They also referred to a statement from the Student Chamber of the Academic Senate of AVU, in which students labeled the petition as uninformed and, in many points, disinformative. The information in the petition that two AVU students died during a study trip is the subject of a pre-litigation challenge – according to the vice rectors, the incident had no connection to AVU's activities.

The petition also addresses changes to the Jindřich Chalupecký Awards, which were designed to recognize artists under 35. A group of artists objects to the fact that the award has become non-competitive and that the age limit for recipients has been removed. The director of the awards, Karina Kottová, does not consider the petition a constructive form of criticism, stating that the text contains numerous incorrect information and unethical personal attacks. In her statement, she clarified that the main award has not been abolished, but rather expanded. She also noted that the supervisory board and an international jury are involved in the changes and awarding of the prizes.