A discussion about Brno dissent will present the specifics of the local environment in comparison with Prague or other cities, its diversity in opinions, content and form – a left wing, the hidden church, an underground university or contacts with the official environment. It will also recall the central character and role of doc. Jaroslav Šabata. The samizdat of Brno and its many forms and provenance are undoubtedly a topic in its own right. Today’s younger generation could certainly be interested in how the passing on of information, calling for meetings, dissemination of messages at a time without computers and the Internet worked, what the Prague – Brno connection was like, how samizdat was formed, where and how dissident meetings were held or what are the opinions of debate participants on the development after 1989.

Discussion participants:

Anna Šabatová – signatory of Charter 77 and co-founder of  VONS (Committee for the Defence of the Unfairly Persecuted), daughter of Jaroslav Šabata, today Ombudsman of the Czech Republic

Milan Uhde – signatory of Charter 77playwright, publicist, politician, after 1989 among others Minister of Culture and Chairman of the Parliament of the Czech Republic

Petr Pospíchal – signatory of Charter 77 and political prisoner, after 1989 among others, a member of President Václav Havel’s office and the ambassador to Bulgaria

Petr Fiala – before 1989 a student participant in the underground university and the hidden church, after 1989 the co-founder of the Department of Political Science and Rector of Masaryk University in Brno, now Chairman of the Civic Democratic Party

Petr Oslzlý – co-organizer of secret flat seminars of the underground university, in 1989 one of the organizers of the November strike of theatres, now Rector of the Janáček Academy of Arts

Jan Kratochvil – signatory of Charter 77, after 1989 founder and owner of a private museum of Czech and Slovak exile in Brno

Programme partner: Schrott Gallery.