Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship - autonomous ...

the social under socialism
military displays and socialist festivals (mass spectacle) as visual points of
reference, which dissuaded artists from contrived displays of collective
unity even if they had had the resources to emulate them. 5
I. Prague: From Actions to Ceremonies
Czechoslovakia came under Soviet control in February 1948. Only months
after this change of regime, the eminent art critic Jindřich Chalupecký
described the immediate impact of the upheaval in an article expressing his
confusion and anger that a leftist project (with which he and many of his
contemporaries had identifi ed in the 1930s) turned out to be a repressive
force that prevented individual expression and dissent. ‘In place of a diverse
and sophisticated culture’, he wrote, ‘we were presented with something so
incredibly barren, monotonous and base as to defy reason.’ 6 He goes on to
describe the crushing effect of these enforced changes that effectively
eroded any space for private thought: time became organised, with compulsory
membership of organisations demonstrating loyalty to the regime, to
say nothing of ‘the diabolical invention of collective “organised leisure”,
which makes sure that people are unable to devote themselves to their own
private concerns even during their vacations’. 7 The ownership of private
property was systematically eliminated, along with privacy and individuality
as an emotional and psychological refuge.
As a satellite state of the USSR, Czechoslovakia’s fortunes in the postwar
period were closely linked to changes in the Russian regime. After the
death of Stalin in 1953, Khrushchev came to power and openly denounced
Stalin’s arbitrary rule and political purges. After 1964 the conservative
reformist Brezhnev reversed the positive changes that Khrushchev had
begun to introduce. In Czechoslovakia, by contrast, liberalisation continued
through the 1960s: growing economic diffi culties led to the gradual
increase of reformist ideas, opposing the persistence of Stalinism and
holding it responsible for Czechoslovakia’s political and economic ills.
During this period, artists were in contact with international colleagues
and could travel to exhibitions in Paris and Germany. The Prague Spring
of 1968 – Alexander Dubček’s ‘socialism with a human face’ – loosened
restrictions on the media, speech and travel. 8 This window was all too
brief. The Soviet invasion of 21 August 1968 led to the imposition of
‘normalisation’, that is, the absolute restoration of centralised control, in
which a local system was recalibrated to match the Soviet model. In
Czechoslovakia this process was particularly harsh, with the reintroduction
of media censorship, a restriction on private travel, and an increasingly
vigilant secret police. 9 The 1970s in Czechoslovakia were therefore an
extremely dark period, with changes only coming slowly after Charter
1977, a manifesto criticising the government signed by 243 citizens (including
some artists) and published in West German newspapers on 6 January
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