Dismissal of Slovak National Gallery Head Sparks Protest

Thousands of demonstrators rallied in the streets of the Slovakian capital of Bratislava on August 12 and 13 to protest the dismissal by the country’s culture ministry of the chiefs of theSlovak National Gallery(SNG) and National Theater. As well, more than three hundred arts professionals and culture workers signed an August 12open lettercalling for Slovak culture minister Martina Šimkovičová to reconsider the firing ofAlexandra Kusá, general director of the SNG, warning that the dismissal “undermined the independence of the cultural field in [Slovakia] and damaged the trust in and reputation of Slovak culture internationally.”

Kusá, who had led the SNG since 2010, was sacked on August 7, the day after National Theater director Matej Drlička was dismissed. The firings follow the wholesale purge by Šimkovičová—a onetime television presenter appointed to the role by Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico last October—of the board at the Slovak Fund for the Promotion of the Arts, the country’s arts funding body. Also dismissed were the directors of the National Library and the children’s museum Bibiana, while Bratislava’s House of Culture saw its funding pulled. The changes were to some degree expected following Šimkovičová’s appointment, given her public homophobic, ultra-nationalist, and pro-Russian stance, and in light of the values championed by Fico’s populist, conservative government.

Pointing to Kusá’s success in elevating the international profiles of Slovakian artists, the letter called for her immediate reinstatement, noting, “Your decision threatens . . . 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.”

Among the missive’s signatories are Sebastian Cichocki and Joanna Mytkowska, chief curator and director, respectively, of the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; Ekaterina Degot, director and chief curator of Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria; Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Çağla Ilk, director of Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany; Karola Kraus, general director of Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Manuel Segade, director of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and Rein Wolfs, director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.