Czechoslovakia experienced stormy days in January 1969. They were started by the act of student Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square on January 16 in protest against the Soviet occupation and in order to rouse people from passivity. Pictures from the exhibition of well-known Czech photographers in Kutná Hora show what it looked like in Prague from Palach’s act to the day when his massive demonstration funeral took place.
Exhibition called Jan Palach 16-25 January 1969 can be seen in the Federal Building in Kutnohorsk until February 20. “The main intention of the project is to present to the public, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the tragic death of Jan Palach, an extensive collection of photographs of leading Czech authors from the stormy events that followed his self-immolation in Prague and culminated in a massive protest funeral in the streets of the Old Town,” says curator Dana Kyndrová.
At the exhibition, visitors can see, for example, pictures by Dagmar Hochová, Miroslav Zajíc, Jovan Dezort, Miroslav Huck, Milon Novotný, Pavel Dias, Markéta Luskačová, Pavel Štecha, Jiří Všetečka or Jaroslav Kučera.
The photographs included in the exhibition in Kutná Hora were presented for the first time in January 2009 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Palach’s death. At that time, it was at an exhibition in the premises of the Franciscan monastery on Prague’s Jungmann square. At the same time, the Prague House of Photography and the Kant publishing house published an accompanying publication with 150 photographs and a text by the historian Jiří Suk.
The former regime tried to suppress everything that was connected with Jan Palach’s act. He tried to downplay the student’s self-immolation by calling it the act of a mentally ill person. For many years, it was not allowed to be written about, talked about and, of course, the photos that captured the atmosphere of January 1969 were also not allowed to be shown. That is why many shots, included in the current exhibition in Kutná Hora, were practically unknown until 1989.
Jan Palach 16 – 25 January 1969
Exhibition of photographs in the Federal Building in Kutná Hora. The curator is Dana Kyndrová. Pictures of the following authors are exhibited: Jan Bartůšek, Tibor Borský, Jovan Dezort, Pavel Dias, Emil Fafek, Přemysl Hněvkovský, Dagmar Hochová, Miroslav Hucek, Jiří Chocholáč, Karel Kalivoda, Jaroslav Kučera, Vladimír Lammer, Markéta Luskačová, Miroslav Martinovský, Miloň Novotný , Daniela Sýkorová, Pavel Štecha and Miroslav Zajíc. Duration of the exhibition: from January 5 to February 20, open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.