Doc. Karel Haloun

* 1951

  • "We tried not to make it look like Michal David's records. My goal is that the person who looks at it, even though it was officially issued, that it radiates a kind of unofficiality. So one would say, that if they wanted to, they would do such a thing at the kitchen table with scissors and glue."

  • "That everyday turmoil was unthinkable or unimaginable until then. Although some people had warned that the Russian will not leave it like this. Everyone had such a strange euphoric idea. Then, everyone was talking about the socialism with a human face, which no one knew that three or four years would pass and socialism would show its animal face."

  • "The junior club started in 1981. Luboš Schmidtmajer returned from the war and found himself in the group of our friends, because the surrealist poet Josef Janda was his native, a fellow native of Příbram, and brought him to our society. He fantasized that he would start a club in Prague, which would be completely sensational, that bands would play there and there would be a theater and exhibitions. And we thought, just blather on the fantasy. And he really made it, and everything came true unbelievably. I talked about it a lot in those Fates [the show Fates of Czech Radio]. He was a master of positional warfare. Most of all, it was sensational to see punk people jumping at a concert there, and the day after that they were at Dr. Mráz's concert about art, taking notes in their notebooks. The next week they were at Gombrowicz's operetta HaDivadla. It accumulated well."

  • Full recordings
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    Praha, 20.04.2022

    (audio)
    duration: 02:14:27
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
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I realized that censorship can have a positive effect on work under certain circumstances

Karel Haloun in 1980
Karel Haloun in 1980
photo: archive of the witness

Karel Haloun was born on October 30, 1951 in Prague. He graduated from the Secondary Vocational School of Fine Arts and subsequently from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. In the 1970s, he befriended musicians who moved between official and alternative culture. In 1976 he created the first cover for the singer Vladimír Mišík. Since then, the creation of music covers became the backbone of his work. In 1980, he was one of the founders of the Junior Club Na Chmelnici, where he held the position of artistic director. He became the author of several iconic club music posters and programs. In 1990, he also created a poster for the Rolling Stones concert in Prague, but in the end, it was not approved by the sponsor. In 1996 he became a member of the Typo Design Club and from 2004 to 2020 he was teaching at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. He has published several books and he is a non-performing member of the band Jasná páka and later Hudba Praha.