Freedom is a terribly important thing
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Josef Sládek was born on 21 November 1964. He grew up with his parents Josef, Anna and his brother Karel in Mistřice in South Moravia. His father, negatively influenced by the collectivization of the 1950s, considered emigrating. Josef was interested in fine arts from childhood, so he studied design in the field of shaping machines and tools at the Secondary School of Arts and Crafts (SUPŠ) in Uherské Hradiště and the same field at the university in Gottwaldov (today‘s Zlín). Already in high school he was fascinated by the so-called second culture and underground bands. He was interested in independent literature and attended alternative music concerts around his home and in Prague. In 1984, he co-founded the experimental band Svoz řepy in the former Bata town. The unorthodox new-wave group „waged war“ on the musical front against the absurdities of the communist regime using metaphorical lyrics, industrial sounds and provocative dance creations. Josef came into contact with samizdat in Gottwaldov. In 1987 he had to undergo interrogation by State Security Service (StB) for buying „pirate“ music tapes. In 1989 he signed the petition Several Sentences. He lived through the Velvet Revolution as a conscript on basic military service. In 2024 he taught design at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Brno University of Technology (FSI VUT) and lived alternately in the Moravian capital and in Mistřice.
