Jiří Kolář: X Bienal de Sao Paulo EN - Rado Ištok

Jiří Kolář: X Bienal de Sao Paulo EN - Rado Ištok

In September 1969, artist Jiří Kolář became one of the laureates of the Biennale Prize at the 10th Sao Paulo Biennial. The publication reconstructs Kolář's presentation and the broader circumstances of the Czechoslovak participation in the 10th biennial, where Czechoslovakia was also represented by Miloš Urbásek, Milan Dobeš, Jiří Novák, František Ronovský, and Michal Jakabčic. While their works represented diverse approaches to art in Czechoslovakia in the period leading up to the Prague Spring in 1968, they were shown in Sao Paulo more than a year after the August 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. In the history of the biennale, however, the 10th edition remains notorious for its boycott by numerous Brazilian and international artists in protest of the censorship and human rights abuses committed by the Brazilian military dictatorship.