• Czech Coal Group
• Czech Coal a.s.
• Vršanská uhelná a.s.
• Litvínovská uhelná a.s.

Helping others to not to forget

The Czech Coal Group has become the General Partner of The Circus of Totality multi-genre project, thanks to which people in many places in the Czech Republic have an opportunity to return to the relatively recent past.

The Circus of Totality is intended for the general public, both those who still remember totalitarian Czechoslovakia and the first “free generation” born after November 1989. The authors want to promote general interest in information about life in the age of totalitarianism. Systematic teaching on totalitarian history has not yet been introduced in schools, and the youngest generation of today therefore knows very little about that time. “We are glad that thanks to programmes such as this, a regime that suppressed fundamental human rights and freedoms, a regime that had its political prisoners and a bloody past, will not be forgotten,” explains Jan Dobrovský, Czech Coal’s Supervisory Board Chairman.

The Circus of Totality was prepared by artists, historians and teachers in just under two years. It comprises five cultural subprojects: an outdoor exhibition called The Calendar of Totality, which, in the form of a stylised bus stop, offers a comparative overview of the crucial historical milestones in post-war history in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and the German Democratic Republic; director Petra Tejnorová’s theatrical production called Personal Anamnesis, subtitled I was five in 1989... as if it stopped against my own skin; a model of experience-focused exhibition grounds Simulator of Totality, the installation of which is planned for 2010; and, finally, the last sub-project, publications titled Eternity and Methodology letters and resources for school lessons in Czech totalitarian history.

From Prague, where the whole project was launched on 23 April, The Circus of Totality has moved to Plzeň. From there it will travel to Slavonice, and in the autumn The Calendar of Totality will tour Bratislava, Budapest, and Warsaw. The Circus of Totality has been produced by Opona, a non-governmental non-profit organisation backed by an initiative of young people who want to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Author: Josef Brabec, 5 June 2009