Jitka Svobodová

“In that Union there was a jury, which consisted of renowned artists. Whenever there was an exhibition, this jury decided about everything. Naturally there were the members of the Union. And the others had no chance. So there were no exhibitions for them. Many people, therefore, worked and did not exhibit. Then there were the so-called underground events, people exhibited in studios. I had about a two-day exhibition in a studio in Prague-Smíchov. The building was being pulled down, it was quite empty. And I think it helped me a lot. It was absurd. And there was a circle of people who went there. A culture was created against the official one and it was rather interesting.”

"But as a personality – this was a negation, no one was allowed to stick out from an average. Our father wanted us to attend the religion classes. This was an optional subject. This was still while we were at Kladská. There was one more boy who attended with us. And we spoiled the reputation of the school for the headmaster. He asked our father to take us away from the class. Our father, however, said that he wished his children to attend religion. So they moved us to a different school."