A Conversation in Beseder “Gelman with the Stubborn Ones”

Date: 9.3.2026, 18:30

This meeting grows out of a specific historical and human moment - and therefore goes beyond an ordinary conversation about art.
Marat Gelman, whose exhibition “Gelman - a Jew” opened here just a few days ago and speaks of a newly rediscovered identity, is of interest in this meeting primarily from another angle - as a person.

A man who has lived in emigration for many years not because of his Jewish background, but as a result of his active disagreement with what is happening in the country to which he devoted so much of his creative energy - Russia. His refusal to accept its aggression as a norm unexpectedly and precisely brings him close to the Czech artists of the group Tvrdohlaví.

The “Stubborn Ones” emerged in Prague in 1987, at the twilight of the socialist era. They consciously opposed both official socialist realism and the cold rationality of conceptual art of the 1970s and 80s. What united them was a desire to return expression, corporeality, figuration, and personal myth to art. The group had no single style, but its members - Jiří David, Stanislav Diviš, Jaroslav Róna, Štěpán Milkov, Petr Nikl, František Skála, Michal Gabriel, Čestmír Suška and others - became symbols of an artistic and existential turning point in Czech culture at the end of the 20th century.

Today, decades later, this experience of dissent and inner independence resonates in a new way. There is a sense that Marat Gelman has, in many respects, found himself “in their skin”. From this feeling emerged the idea of the meeting “A Conversation in Beseder” - a dialogue between Gelman and representatives of the Tvrdohlaví group.

Participants in the discussion include Václav Marhoul, Jiří David, Čestmír Suška, and Štěpán Milkov.

Format: a public moderated discussion.
Moderator - Evgeny Demenok, writer and art historian.
Languages of the meeting - Russian and Czech, with professional consecutive interpretation.

This will not be an academic analysis nor a nostalgic look back, but a living conversation about stubbornness in art, dissent as an ethical position, and how personal historical experience is reflected in artistic expression today.

Practical information:
Admission is free.
Registration is required https://forms.gle/NmLaDw5tFvaijuRj8