Peter Sis

good news travels fast

Imagine: Peter Sis [Petr Sis] on FB

mr. sis is on facebook, courtesy of

his marvelous czech publisher

Joachim Dvorak, of Labyrint...

tap here, for

Petr Sís [Peter Sis]

on FB, and here if

you happen to be

in Prague in May

[wouldn't it be nice, to be in Prague in May?]

Sis IX

Peter Sis. 

The Wall. 

More from the Czech Center Exhibit.

A Time to Give Thanks

Our newest edition to the series of photographs from the Czech Center exhibition.

The radio, the camera, the cassette, and the photos look familiar in so many ways: although we were on the other side of the Wall, my family was stationed in West Germany in the 1970's. 

One of the reasons it is so terribly important to me that people acknowledge this moment in history is simple: as a child, I could not fathom why people were shot for trying to cross over to "our" side of the Wall. Nor could I make sense of the fact that there were soldiers stationed on the other side of the border--a border that my father also stood at--with clear orders to do this. 

It seemed beyond reason that something this barbaric could exist in the modern age, in a world that was supposed to be civilized. 

I'd often think about what it would be like to live on the other side. There was solace in the fact that my father, and those who served with him, was there to maintain the safety and freedom to which we were (and are still) so accustomed. 

There was even greater solace in the fact that sometimes...just sometimes...men and women and children crossed over safely. And that someone was there to care for the lucky few who made it to the other side.

This is history which must not be forgotten. 

How fortunate we are. How many things we have to be thankful for. How much we must remember.

Peter Sis: Photos & Art, The Prague Spring

Peter Sis on the Prague Spring, here.

Here is an excerpt:

I drew and drew. The more repressive the outside world became, the more freedom I found in drawing, in creating a world for myself. I decorated the whole house we were living in from top to bottom, the light switches, the door of the fridge, the chairs. I drew at school, through all my classes, even math and physics (so don’t ask me about electricity, or how to count). My art highschool was a wonderful time of my life. Life was relatively freer than it had been, with the advent of the Beatles, the summer of love, and The Prague Spring. What wonderful synergy. Then the soviet tanks rolled in to Prague, and everything crashed down. It is hard to see what is happening as it happens in history. You go with the flow, and only see things clearly many years later.

Peter Sis: Exhibit V

SOBOTNI DISKOTE'KY KLUBU OLYMPIK: PETR SIS!

More wonderments from the exhibition: soon, we'll be posting where and when you might be able to catch all of this "Wall" goodness.

"Sranda v marnici"

This exhibit, which is constructed around "The Wall," 

was put together by Peter Sis's Czech publisher,

 Joachim Dvorak, at Labyrint Publishing. Dvorak publishes 

utterly spectacular (and often quite daring) books. 

For further information on Labyrint, 

and Dvorak (above), 

here's a website...it's mostly in Czech: 

absolutely worth looking at, 

the visuals are stunning. 

This exhibit will travel to Czech Centers all over the world next year; we'll have more information on that as the week progresses, along with the rest of the photos from the work in the exhibition. Each picture can be viewed in detail: click on the photo at the top of the post, and take a look. 

The work that Sis (below) has created is a landmark achievement for many reasons. "The Wall" resonates with a truth that must be remembered.

The background is fascinating, and not to be forgotten. There's an incredibly insightful transcript, here, from Radio Praha. 

I hope you have time to read the whole thing--it's not too long--but I'm also going to include an excerpt, below.

It is important to remember this difficult past: we can pay tribute to the democracy which we celebrate today by acknowledging that it is our great good fortune to live here, at this time, in this place. Others have not been, and are not now, as lucky. 

Peter Sis, from the interview on Radio Praha:

“It is hard because I get angry now thinking about things I didn’t angry about back then, because when I was a child or when I was a young man, you take for granted some things that are so stupid and so ridiculous. You just know that’s the rule and you just follow the rules....

“And then I somehow got hold of the memoirs of my friend Mejla Hlavsa, who played with the [underground rock group] Plastic People of the Universe, and I had tears in my eyes because really the book is about him being a working class guy who just wanted to play rock music and wanted to grow long hair.

“And by all these circumstances and the rules, when he didn’t fit into the system, he became a political hero and they tortured him to the point that he died at age 50, so all these things make me angry now but they didn’t make me angry at the time.

“It’s sometimes a surprise to people of my generation who say – oh it wasn’t such a big deal and we had great fun and don’t you remember you were in love with this girl when you were 19, but it sort of reminds me of the stories of the Czech writer Arnošt Lustig who was in Auschwitz at the age of 16-17 and he fell in love then too. It’s a wonderful thing to fall in love but it’s not the right thing to be in Auschwitz. So when Czechs say – didn’t we have fun too? I always say yes, but it was ‘sranda v marnici’, which translates as something like ‘fun in the morgue’.”

"The Wall," by Peter Sis: From an Exhibition for The Czech Centers

"Peter Sís draws us into the world that shaped him - Czechoslovakia during the Cold War. Behind the Iron Curtain were many people who wanted to be free. And as Peter grows up, he becomes one of them.

He tells his story in pictures and memories, from a happy childhood to adolescence, when news from the West slowly filters into the country. Peter and his friends hear about blue jeans, Coca-Cola, beat poetry, rock’n’roll… and the Beatles! We feel the pull of the free world’s forbidden fruits and sense the excitement as barriers are lifted. It’s the Prague Spring of 1968, and life is sweet. Then we watch in horror as the Soviets reassert totalitarian control, and we understand Peter’s wish to be free.

In remarkable drawings and diaries, Peter Sís has brought memory and history together to take us on this extraordinary journey behind the Iron Curtain." 

courtesy of

www.labyrint.net

and

Peter Sis

For the marvelous video 

done in conjunction with "The Wall," 

click here.

For a closer look at the art, above, click on the photo. 

Amazing.

New York Times "Quote of the Day," Condolleeza Rice: If you want to know more, read "The Wall"

"This is not 1968, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can invade its neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it," she said. "Things have changed."