August 13, 2024

Open Letter Opposing the Dismissal of the Director of the Slovak National Gallery

Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic,

We write you this public letter as professionals working in museums, arts organisations and universities, as well as supporters of Slovak art and culture. We urge you to reconsider your decision to dismiss the Director General (DG) of the Slovak National Gallery (SNG), Alexandra Kusá, following the dismissal of the Director of the Slovak National Theatre, Matej Drlička. This decision has undermined the independence of the cultural field in your country and damaged the trust in and reputation of Slovak culture internationally.

As the main reason for the dismissal of the Director General of the SNG, you cite your impression of a conflict of interest between the DG and the contractor. It is not for us to judge such a connection. But we would ask that you allow the case to proceed according to the legal frameworks of European democracies and their independent judiciaries and auditors. The rule of law applies to state cultural institutions and decisions about the guilt or innocence of cultural directors should not be made solely on the basis of political expediency. Your statement says that “the department is preparing to file a motion for reconsideration” but we understand that the review has not been initiated. Your action undermines a fair trial and violates the principle of innocence until proven guilty that is the basis of our European legal framework.

We write this letter also in full awareness and appreciation of the dedicated and highly successful directorship of DG Alexandra Kusá. Her period in charge has focused entirely on enhancing the SNG to the benefit of visitors to the museum and to the Slovak and international art field more generally. Since 2010, she has opened the largest Slovak art museum to the public with free admission, modernised visitor services including a renovation of the building, opened a new museum shop and provided digital access to the collections. The SNG has become an important reference point within Europe in terms of collection display and temporary exhibitions. She has motivated the expert team under her leadership and together they have successfully nurtured Slovak art and artists, presenting them in international institutions and important narratives of contemporary international art. Under her directorship, Slovak artists have had solo exhibitions at Tate Modern London (M. Bartuszová) and Mumok Vienna (J. Koller) and have been included in many international collections and exhibitions.

Your decision threatens these crucial developments for art and culture in Slovakia. It also makes us very concerned about the future. We ask you to assure us publicly that we will continue to be able, as European cultural institutions, to trust collaboration with Slovak institutions in the years ahead. We ask you to respect the cultural diversity of the audience for art and the freedom of museums, theatres and cultural institutions to program independently. We ask you to reject the direct political control of cultural institutions and defend the right of art and artists to freedom of expression.

We are encouraged to read in your press release that you hope that the SNG “will become a recognized and respected cultural organization at home and around the world.” Under the directorship of Alexandra Kusá, the SNG has long been on exactly this path. Thus we ask you to take steps to ensure that the SNG can continue to do so, starting with a clear statement that, should Alexandra Kusá be found not guilty of a conflict of interest, you will immediately reinstate her as Director General.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Hildegung Amanshauser, Art Historian, Salzburg

Edit Andras, Art historian, senior research fellow, Hungarian Research Network, Institute of Art History, Budapest

Ingo Arend, Critic, Berlin

Inke Arns, Director HMKW Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund

Mirela Baciak, Director Salzburger Kunstverein and AAC, Austrian Association of Curators

Zdenka Badovinac, Curator and Writer, former Director Moderna Galerija Ljubljana

Pierre Bal-Blanc, Essayist and Independent Curator, Paris / Athens

Zbyněk Baladrán, Artist and Curator at Display, Prague

Anna Bartuszová, Veronika Bartuszová, Soňa Bartuszová, Sofia Blahová, The Estate of Maria Bartuszová / The Archive of Maria Bartuszová, Košice

Eric Baudelaire, Artist, Paris

María Berríos, Director of Curatorial Programmes and Research, MACBA, Barcelona

Claire Bishop, Presidential Professor, PhD Program in Art History, CUNY Graduate Center, New York

Board of ICOM Germany

Board of Secession, Vienna - Ramesch Daha, Barbara Kapusta, Anna Witt, Sophie Thun, Nick Oberthaler, Wilfried Kühn, Michael Part, Jun Yang, Ricarda Denzer, Axel Stockburger, Philipp Fleischmann, Lisl Ponger, Ulrike Müller

Manuel Borja-Villel, Curator, Art Historian, former Director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid/Barcelona

Candice Breitz, Artist, Berlin

Pavel Büchler, Emeritus Professor, Manchester Metropolitan University

Adam Budak, Director Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover

Dominik Busch, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden

Filip Cenek, Dean of Faculty of Fine Arts of Brno University of Technology

David Čeněk, Dean, Film and TV School, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

Vasyl Cherepanyn, Visual Culture Research Center/Kyiv Biennale, Kyiv/Berlin

Hans D. Christ, Direktor, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart

Sebastian Cichocki, Chief Curator, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw

Dr. Hyun Joo Chung, Independent Curator and Research Professor in Philosophy, Chonnam National University, Gwangju

David Crowley, Art historian, Head of School of Visual Culture, National College of Art and Design, Dublin

Pauline Curnier Jardin, Artist, Marseille

Josef Dabernig, Artist, Vienna

Anna Daučíková, Artist, Prague

Ekaterina Degot, Director and Chief Curator, steirischer herbst, Graz

Christina Della Giustina, Artist, HKU University of the Arts, Utrecht

Janneke de Vries, Director, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst, Bremen

Dr.Claudia Emmert, Director, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen

Charles Esche, Director Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Simonetta Ferfoglia, Artist, Curator, Trieste

Andreas Fogarasi, artist, Vienna

Rike Frank, Artistic Co-Director European Kunsthalle, Berlin

Jörn Frenzel, Professor for Service Design, Estonian Academy of Arts

Gabriela Garlatyová, Art historian, Curator of the Archive of Maria Bartuszová

Jana Geržová, Critic, Art historian, Chief editor Profil of Contemporary Visual Art, Bratislava

Inka Gressel, Co-Director ifa-Galerie, Berlin

Marlene Haring, Artist, London

Vít Havránek, Vice Rector for International Relations at AVU

Swetlana Heger, Artist and Head of the Department of Fine Arts, Zurich University of the Arts

Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, Senior Curator, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Maria Hlavajova, Artistic Director, BAK Utrecht

Andreja Hribernik, Director, Kunsthaus Graz

Susanne Hviid, Managing Director, Art Hub, Copenhagen

Çağla İlk, Director of Kunsthalle Baden-Baden

Sanja Iveković, Artist, Zagreb

Luis Jacob, Artist and Professor, University of Toronto

Edith Jeřábková, Curator, PLATO, Ostrava

Magdalena Juříková, Director, City Gallery, Prague

Michaela Kalinová, Art historian

Mart Kalm, Rector, Estonian Academy of Arts

Michal Kalhous, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Music, Ostrava

Verena Kaspar-Eisert, Chief Curator, MuseumsQuartier E+B GesmbH, Vienna

Bohunka Koklesová, Art historian, Rector of the Academy of Art and Design, Bratislava

Vasif Kortun, Curator and Researcher, Istanbul

Eva Koťátková, Artist and Educator, Prague

Karola Kraus, General Director, mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna

Paul Kuimet, Associate Professor, Estonian Academy of Arts

Yunjoo Kwak, Lecturer, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam

Dominik Lang, artist and Head of Studio, Academy of Applied Arts in Prague

Lars Bang Larsen, Curator and Writer, Copenhagen

Zsuzsa László, Researcher, Curator, Museum of Fine Arts - Central

European Research Institute for Art History, Budapest

Camille Laurelli, Artist, New Media Professor, Head of Estonian Videogame Museum

Denisa Lehocká, Artist, Bratislava

Dr. Dieter Lesage, Professor of Political Theory and Artistic research, Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound, Brussels

Fiona Mauritia Liewehr, Artistic director, fjk3-Contemporary Art Space, Vienna

Thomas Locher, Artist, Berlin

Renate Lorenz, Artist and Professor for Art and Research, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna

Vesna Mestric, Director of Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

Omar Mirza, Curator and Critic, City Curator of Trenčín, Slovakia

Monika Mitášova, Curator, Theoretician of Architecture

Vanessa Joan Müller, Artistic Co-Director, European Kunsthalle

Daniel Muzyczuk, Interim Director, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź

Joanna Mytkowska, Director of Museum of Modern Arts, Warsaw

Prof. Olaf Nicolai, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich

Ruth Noack, Curator, Author, Teacher, Berlin

Michal Novotný, Director, Collection of Art after 1945, National Gallery Prague

Boris Ondreička, Curator and Artist, Bratislava

Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director, MACBA, Barcelona

Jeanette Pacher, Curator, Secession Vienna

Nikos Papastergiadis, Professor of Media and Communication, University of Melbourne

Lia & Dan Perjovschi, Artists, Bucharest/Sibiu

Blaž Peršin, Director of Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Nataša Petrešin Bachelez / Simona Dvorák, Initiative for Practices and Visions of Radical Care, Paris

Pina Piccolo, Writer, Editor of The Dreaming Machine, Italy / USA

Heinrich Pichler, Artist @ Gangart, Vienna

François Piron, Art Critic, Curator at Palais de Tokyo, Publisher and Professor, Paris

Marek Pokorný, Director PLATO Ostrava

Jan Press, Director of Moravian Gallery, Brno

Laura Raicovich, Writer and Curator, Former Director Queens Museum, NYC

Marie Rakušanová, Professor of Art History at Charles University

Kolja Reichert, President of the German Section of the International Art Critics Association AICA, Berlin

David Riff, Senior Curator, steirischer herbst festival, Graz

Sophie Rocca, Business Director, Wiels, Brussels

Lucie Rosenfeldova, Artist and Teacher, UMPRUM, Prague

Anda Rottenberg, Curator and Art Historian, Warsaw

Augustin Perez Rubio, Independent Curator, Madrid

Katarína Rusnáková, Art historian, Žilina

Sabel Gavaldon, Head of Public Programmes at MACBA, Barcelona

Alenka Gregorič, artistic director, MGML and Cukrarna, Ljubljana

Grace Samboh, Researcher and Curator, Hyphen, Jogjakarta

Hedwig Saxenhuber, Editor of Springerin magazine and Curator, Vienna

Georg Schoellhammer, Head of tranzit.at, Curator, Author, Founder of the Julius Koller Society, Vienna

Manuel Segade, Director, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid

Ene-Liis Semper, Author, Theatre Director, Professor in Estonian Academy of Arts

Kateřina Šedá, Artist, Brno

Vassiliki Sifostratoudaki, Director Yellow Brick, Athens

Dirk Snauwaert, General and Artistic Director, Wiels, Brussels

Joanna Sokołowska, Curator, Art historian, Academic teacher, Łódź

Raimar Stange, Curator and Art Critic, Berlin

Angelika Stepken, Curator and Author, Pescia/Berlin

Apolonija Šušteršič, Independent Artist and Researcher, Oslo

Katerina Szymanski, Artist, Performer, Financial manager, Studio ALTA, Prague

Adam Szymczyk, Curator at Büro für geistige Mitarbeit, Kunsthaus Zürich

Koen Theys, Artist, Brussels

Maria Topolčanská, Architect and Rector, AVU Prague

Otto Urban, Chief Curator, Center for Contemporary Art DOX, Prag

Mara Traumane, Art historian, Researcher; Institute of Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture of the Art Academy of Latvia

Valentine Umansky, Curator, International Art, Tate Modern

Renger van den Heuvel, Director, STAGE, Bregenz

Lidwien van de Ven, Artist, Amsterdam

Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Artist, Berlin

Anton Vidokle, Artist and Founder of e-flux

Raluca Voinea, Curator, Co-director of tranzit.ro Association

Miroslav Vorlíček, Curator and Registrar, Lidice Art Collection, Lidice Memorial

Jindřich Vybíral, Rector, Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague

Adnan Yıldız, International Curator for the 20th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Mediterranea

What, how and for whom / WHW, Zagreb

Tomáš Winter, Director, Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Science

Rein Wolfs, Director, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdamein Wolfs, Director Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

František Zachoval, Director, Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové

Jiří Žák, Artist, Artyčok TV, Prague

Vera Zalutskaya, Curator and Co-Editor-in-Chief Most Magazine, Warsaw

Barnabás Zemlényi-Kovács, Curator, Critic, Artmagazine journal

Zsuzsanna Zsuró, Researcher and Curator, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

Originally published on Change.org.

Category
Museums, Contemporary Art
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