Ladislav Čarný

"Why at Cipar? Cipár was elected chairman of the Union of Fine Artists in 1989, and it was such perestroika - he tended to accept even the previously forbidden artists to enable them to exhibit at certain venues. Cipar represented some institutional umbrella. We viewed him very positively. At this meeting at Cipar, he initiated a meeting in Umelecka beseda, there was currently an exhibition by Rudo Sikora (which was also a sign of relaxation). And since he exhibited there, he hed the keys and he could open the space. When we went to beseda, I thought there would be tanks, and militia etc.. but it didn't happen. And this was the meeting, where the Public Against Violence started to form. It is an important moment of Slovak history. Slovakia was performed independently of Czech Civic Forum, and that was only the beginning. Most of us didn't want to go to politics - some of my colleagues did.A lot of people came to the Umelecka beseda, that's why I went there with concern because we used telephones to organise, they were tapped, or could have been. But yes, it was a sign of a changing situation. I don't know the background. Surprisingly, a lot of people arrived, and it had a huge public impact. Also, the leaders- types, crystallized there, we were no longer a friendly circle of intellectuals, debating. The meetings at Miro Cipar initiated meetings at Umelecka beseda, where future politicians started to engage.

"I had received the declaration from Daniel Fischer, I signed it, immediately I was called to the Union of Visual Artists. I asked them: "Do you have any problems with the need to express a clear standpoint towards holocaust and other grave issues?" They could hardly dissaprove but they didn't like the other signatories- the dissidents.