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Ceska Sporitelna is a Partner to Two Photo Exhibitions on the Occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Events of August 1968

In the night from 20 to 21 August 2008, forty years will have passed since the Warsaw Pact armies (except for Albania and Romania) invaded the former Czechoslovakia. This historical milestone not only put an end to the attempts at reform made by Dubček’s government, but also was the precursor of the 1970s “normalisation”. Although forty years seems to be a long time, this milestone was decisive for several generations of Czechoslovak citizens, and its commemoration represents more than just a historical memento – “Sixty-Eight” is a part of our present national identity – both in the positive and negative senses.

For this reason Ceska Sporitelna and the ERSTE Stiftung have become the partners and co-organisers of a photo exhibition on the 40th anniversary of the August 1968 events.  It is an exhibition of the Austrian journalist and photographer Franz Goësse.  The open-air exhibition will be held from 18 August through 12 September  2008 in the upper part of Wenceslas Square, under the auspices of: J. E. Margot Klestil-Löffler, Austria’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic; Karel Schwarzenberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic; and Petr Hejma, Mayor, City of Prague 1.

Ceska Sporitelna and the ERSTE Stiftung have also supported the organisation of an exhibition of the photographs of Josef Koudelka, entitled Invasion 68.  This exhibition has been open for viewing since 9 August 2008 at the Town Hall of the Old Town, and will last until 13 September 2008.  The exhibition is organised by the Art Link agency, in association with the Matným Photos agency and the City of Prague, under the auspices of Karel Schwarzenberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, and Pavel Bém, Mayor, City of Prague.

“We consider the 1968 events to have been immensely important in terms of the development of the Czechoslovak State, and we welcomed the opportunity to contribute to the organisation of these two exceptional exhibitions, which will remind both Praguers and the city’s visitors of the 40th anniversary of the events,” said Klára Gajdušková, Director of Corporate Communications at Ceska Sporitelna.  “We trust that the number of visitors at both exhibitions will be great, and that both events will be among the most significant cultural happenings in Prague this summer,” added Klára Gajdušková.

Franze Goësse (born 1929), visited Czechoslovakia regularly throughout 1968 and reported for the French magazine Paris Match, capturing the events of Prague Spring, the entry of the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries into Prague, as well as the period that closely followed. He focused primarily on the political posters and caricatures that flooded the walls and shop windows in Wenceslas Square in the early morning hours following the arrival of Russian tanks in Prague, absolutely without being noticed.  Russian soldiers tore them down during the following night, and burned them. They were only preserved due to people such as Franz Goësse, who preserved them through their cameras.

Josef Koudelka (born 1938) took a series of photographs during the first seven days of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies, which he later managed to secretly take out of the country. In 1969, on the first anniversary of the invasion, his photographs were published in many international magazines, without stating the author’s name.  In the same year, a major award was bestowed on Koudelka: the Overseas Press Club bestowed a Gold Robert Capa Medal on the “anonymous Czech photographer”.  It was not until 1984, when the threat of repression for his family had ceased, that he first publicly claimed the authorship of these photographs.  After forty years, Josef Koudelka, who is today a major world photographer, has gone through his archive and selected a number of photographs, which will be presented to the public for the first time.  The result is this exhibition and the book THE 68 INVASION, which is being published simultaneously in nine countries.

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