Jaroslav Hýbner

* 1963

  • „So we came to his house. From one side, there was nothing, just a gap site, then there was a window, a gate, and two more windows, then there was the first floor. Then you would open the gate to the passageway and after that there was one more gate to the courtyard entry. And I remember telling myself that if I would make a movie, this should be a prologue. Then the gate would open with a creak and there was this courtyard overgrown with nettles with this narrow road in the middle, and there was this walnut tree and there was a saw that had grown into the tree, as they were trying to cut it down. We asked Ludva what the hell was going on here. 'You know, my brother wanted to cut it down, but then they boys came, inviting him to a concert, so he just left it like it was.' And this saw with a wooden handle would grow into that tree in a few years. And that was just beautiful. And from there went this narrow corridor to a dunghill and on the top of it there was this wooden latrine. And from there this dog emerged, as it had been living there. Dungy was his name. And after that, it had been living with us. It was just fantastic. I spent a wonderful year at this house. The year of 1985 I guess.”

  • “We organised several art exhibitions in the area. And there was a huge police manoeuvre at that time. As we had found this book where Havel Drastil, a Hussite leader who had a castle in the area, had been mentioned. And it was the 'Havel' part we found interesting. So we decided to unveil his bust, a memorial. And we made this kind of a bust, from concrete, we would decorate it, and we wanted to do this exhibition at Bezměrák (a pond) with an unplugged show. And the name of this event was Havel Drastil. I made the catalogue. There were many photographers, painters, people who did something. We brought some kegs to this place. We had ponies back then so we would bring all the stuff on carts, using dirt roads. On Saturday morning we went, we were bringing all the pots and stuff. And then it all started. The train from Kojetín didn't stop in Bezděkov, it would just pass through the station. All roads were being guarded. There were police from North Moravia, South Moravia, well just everyone. And as we came to this place we were told that we weren't allowed to stay there. That they had created some kind of a natural reserve at this place, so Bezeměrov was off-limits from now on. So in the end we would retreat using the same dirt roads, across a meadow. And there's this small forest maybe 200 metres from the house where I have been living. So we would move all the stuff there and the event took place here, in Kojetín, where they didn't see us. They just kept watching Bezměrák. And even then, the exhibition was just fantastic.”

  • “We had a good thing going there, all these Akustiádas taking place here. Everyone in our group from Kojetín, there were maybe seven of us, would save one hundred crowns every month. And we would use the money to buy kegs of beer, we would buy meat to cook goulash, and we would bring it to the place. We would make two pots of goulash, the beer was free. So we would invest our money so no one would have to pay anything. Jarin Pavelka had been working for the ČSAD (The Czechoslovak National Automotive Transport Company) at that time. So every time we would take this Avia car to bring the stuff. All the shows were unplugged, there were some theatre troupes, there were bands and singers. We had a good thing going there. And the cops never came to disperse us. It had been taking place there every year. I don't know how well hidden we had been, or if they were just too lazy to go all the way uphill, as it was quite difficult to get there by car.”

  • Full recordings
  • 1

    Kojetín, 10.05.2021

    (audio)
    duration: 02:37:19
    media recorded in project Stories of 20th Century
Full recordings are available only for logged users.

We would make two pots of goulash, the beer was free

Jaroslav Hýbner, a portrait
Jaroslav Hýbner, a portrait
photo: archiv pamětníka

Jaroslav Hýbner was born on 28 July 1963 in Přerov. He lived in Kojetín with his parents, where he joined the local cultural underground movement. With his friends, in the 1980s, he had been organising illegal music festivals ‘Lennoniáda’ and ‘Akustiáda’, as well as several unique art shows. He had been part of the ‘Hurvínkova koloběžka’ (‘Hurvínek’s Scooter’) theatre troupe, performing at several underground festivals. He witnessed several police raids and had repeatedly ended up in a police cell. He had signed and distributed several anti-regime petitions, like ‘Just a few sentences’, and at home, he had been copying samizdat literature and books banned by the communist regime using carbon paper. In November 1989 he co-founded the local Civic Forum branch in Kojetín, becoming its first spokesperson. However, he left the Civic Forum after some time and in 1991 he was one of the founders of the Civic Democratic Party branch in Kojetín and had been serving as its local chairman at the time the interview had been taken (2021). He has four kids with his wife, Klára – Jan, Jaroslava, Klára and Jakub.