An Unfinished Story: Adéla Jůnová Macková and Jiří Žák (online)

The event will be in Czech

In connection with Ala Younis’ exhibition High Dam: Modern Pyramid at VI PER, Adéla Jůnová Macková and Jiří Žák will present their research on the relations between Czechoslovakia and the countries of Egypt and Syria in the 1950s to 1970s. Adéla Jůnová Macková’s lecture will focus on Czechoslovak relations with Egypt, the establishment of economic and cultural agreements and their consequences for Czechoslovak Egyptology. Based on the Czechoslovak cultural delegation in Egypt in 1956, which was also attended by Egyptologists František Lexa and Zbyněk Žába, a cultural agreement was prepared between the two countries, resulting also into the foundation of the Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology, active both in Prague and Cairo. The Institute’s work on the concession in Abusir was later expanded to include the participation of Czechoslovak Egyptologists in rescue work in Nubia as part of a large-scale event coordinated by UNESCO in places that were to be flooded as a result of the construction of the Aswan Dam.

Jiří Žák has long been researching the issue of Czech arms exports to the Middle East in the context of the identity of post-communist countries and its deconstruction through non-Western perspectives. His film Nedokončený milostný dopis (An Unfinished Love Letter, 2020, 23 min), which he will present during his lecture, is his own collage of archival materials, documentaries from the 1960s and 1970s that represent a propagandistic interpretation of the then Czechoslovak activities in Syria, including the construction of an oil refinery in Homs by the Czechoslovak foreign trade company Technoexport. The film is a lyrical retelling of this propaganda based on intuitive-poetic perspective, a kind of an unfinished love letter recounting the end of a partnership between not only two people, but also two countries.

Schedule:
18.00 Adéla Jůnová Macková: Czechoslovakia and Egypt in 1950s and 1960s
18.30 Jiří Žák: An Unfinished Love Letter, 2020, screening with the author’s commentary
19.00 Adéla Jůnová Macková and Jiří Žák in conversation with Rado Ištok + Q&A

Adéla Jůnová Macková works at the Masaryk Institute and the Archives of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. She studied modern economic and social history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University and focuses on the history of scientific institutions and Oriental studies, the history of travel and economic history in relation to the Middle East in 1918–1938. She is the author of many scientific articles as well as the book Nerovné partnerství. Československo-íránské vztahy 1918–1938 (Prague, 2013), co-author of the publication S diplomatem v Orientu. Cyril a Pavla Duškovi v Egyptě (1922–1924) (Prague, 2014), Českoslovenští vědci v Orientu I., II. (Prague, 2012 and 2013) and Expeditio Obenberger (Prague, 2012), as well as co-editor of the collection Crossroads of Egyptology. The Worlds of Jaroslav Černý (Prague, 2010).

Jiří Žák, a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, is active in the art group Ateliér bez vedoucího and works for Artyčok TV. As an artist, he works mainly with moving images and video installations, in which the research component usually blends with the poetic line and the form of narration. He is interested in the identity of post-communist countries and its deconstruction through non-Western perspectives. For a long time, he has been researching, for example, the issue of Czech arms exports to the Middle East; an important topic for him is also the socio-political relationship to information published through the media and on the Internet. His most recent works have addressed also environmental anxiety. In 2015 he won the EXIT award, in 2017 he was a finalist in the Other Visions competition at PAF (Festival of Film Animation and Contemporary Art) in Olomouc. In 2020, he was among the finalists of Jindřich Chalupecký Award.