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The Times of Timelessness
or
Czechoslovak and Polish history
under the burden of normalization
and the agony of the totalitarian society after 1968.
Most citizens of our country still remember from personal experience the last two decades of the communist dictatorships in Czechoslovakia and Poland. This year we'll start at the end of 60s of 20th century. Certain overlaps in the history of both countries are intentionally accented with respect to many historical parallels including quite intense cooperation between the Polish and Czechoslovak political opposition movements of the times. The program carries the subtitle “The Times of Timelessness” to indicate symptoms of the explored epoch. Citizens vs. the state, individuals vs. the restrictive society establishing and imposing legal and social norms on citizens leading to no moral options for their lives that would be in accordance with their conscience or beliefs. The consequence was a paralyzed society of masses with no chance for freedom of self-fulfillment. Their dreams drowned in everyday compromises, hypocrisy and lying which became another implied norm and the society stuck in stagnation and moral devastation.
Our approach is based on subtler stratification of the society of the times, a demarcation of particular periods of the epoch and identification of differences and parallels in the developments in both countries. The emphasis is stressed on the relationship between the individual and the society, on personal stories of people who managed to resist the everyday boredom and collaboration with the establishment.
