Once upon a time in the east @City Gallery - art exhibition review

Once upon a time in the East (Tenkràt na Východě) - Czechs through the Eyes of Photographers, 1948-1989

By Kevin Calonne

From now on till 3^rd of January, the City Gallery of Prague hosts well-known, forgotten and also hitherto unpublished photographs. From the establishment of the Communist regime in 1948 to its demise in 1989, photographers worked on getting in touch with everyday-life ambiance of the Czechoslovak population.

Photograph from Ivo Vodseďálek, Vysoké nad Jizerou, 1952, Fotobanka ČTK, černobílá fotografie

^{“This is not a political or an historical exhibition” . By settling on this assertion, organizers probably thought it was the best way to reach a broader, non-regular audience. Well after leaving The City gallery, regardless of the quality of the photographs, I had the impression this statement was a hoax!}

Let’s be clear: social atmosphere, politics and especially history are at the core of this exhibition. Besides, stating the opposite is simply a lack of respect to the photographers’ work. Back in the early fifties many magazines vanished due to heavy censorship, however artists still found ways to unleash their creativity and express themselves. Even if publishing these photos was an unconceivable idea, photographers were still willing to give away their own testimony.  So yes, when Josef Koudelka takes a picture of a man standing out in front of the crowd and throwing a stone at a soviet tank in spring 1968, undoubtedly, this is a political act. Yes, when Pavel Štetcha freezes a bleak glance into Prague’s population in the early sixties, obviously he seeks to delineate social despair back in the day! What about the gloomy picture from Jindřich Štreit of a despondent man witnessing life in the free world through the small TV in his bare apartment?