Petr Štembera

“We made transcripts of Charter 77 and brought it with us to various places. I remember thinking that this was the most I would get involved in. And then I remember this great event in 1978. In Náplavní street, at this guy’s place, what’s his name? He was part of the underground, Ivan Bierhanzl. In his attic there was an exhibition of crazy drawings by Eugen Brikcius when he was a child. Everyone in Prague knew that. And whoever went there was aware of the risk. Because wherever one would go, everyone would say: ‘Evžen will be there, that will be good.’ But we also knew that they would come and do a bust. And so they did. A bunch of people attended. And a number of cops arrived. As they knocked on the door, everyone began to pull the Charter transcripts from their pockets hesitating where to hide them. People shoved it behind a stove, behind paintings; meanwhile it was falling from behind those paintings. It was amazing. They let us go one by one. I remember that Petr Rezek was also there. And they went like: ‘Aha, Mr. Rezek.’ But they let him go, in fact, they arrested practically nobody.”

“Once I was in a museum in the Hungarian town of Pécs. This was one of the best things. Unfortunately, I got terribly drunk doing that so I don’t know what was going on. I have fragments of memories and people also told me stuff. It was part of the self-liquidation project. I was preparing some dough which was then supposed to bubble up and put out the candles. I was drinking some really hard liquor while doing that – vodka. I am not used to that. Stage lights were shining on me. And as I am such an educated man I brought in a book by Heidegger written in Czech and German. Getting more and more drunk I was reading them out loud some of Heidegger’s sentences which I didn’t even understand in Czech. But I was thinking that it was all also about communication. Reading Heidegger in German to the Hungarians – that must have been a great idea! Meanwhile, I succumbed to the alcohol so I don’t know what was happening to me. I woke up the next day in some apartment. They loaded me in a car and dropped me at the train station in Budapest to catch the train to Prague. So I did. Later they told me that it was quite a mess because a part of the museum almost burned down. They probably exaggerated. Well, something went on fire in there.”