![]() We were bringing an absolutely marvelous collection of paintings that were lent through the Art in Embassies program, some from good friends. They were personal decisions on both of our parts. We wanted to meet the most interesting people in the country, who were, of course, the dissidents. From our backgrounds, we knew that we wanted to do several things with cultural diplomacy while in Czechoslovakia. Yet the Ambassador’s Residence, the Petschek Palace with 65 rooms, was absolutely fabulous. It was very dark and very gloomy and very communist. l had never been to Czechoslovakia at this point. I had worked as a journalist and for Amnesty International and Bill, a career diplomat, was a Soviet specialist and had been in charge of Eastern Europe as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Europe. It all started in 1983 when Bill and I and our children and dogs arrived in Prague in December for Bill to become the American Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. ![]() Wendy, thank you for making time to share your story with us. Here, Wendy shares her story of getting to know Czechoslovakia its peoples, and the vital role she would play in the democratization of a newly freed nation. She was the first woman and first non-Czech to receive the Gratias Agit award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. Beyond starting the Foundation for a Civil Society, she has also gone on to help establish the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies and the Václav Havel Library Foundation. ![]() With her guidance and interminable energy, we helped create something that had a direct impact on countless lives.” Today, Wendy lives and works in New York City with her husband. ![]() One of those creative Americans recently wrote, “Wendy threw her trust behind a bunch of kids. Wendy worked to link hundreds of creative Americans with Central Europeans who made a practical difference in the transition from communism. They trusted Wendy and Bill and needed her. In 1990, and the years that followed she drew on her international network to collaborate with dozens of friends who virtually overnight had become the political and cultural leaders of a newly independent, free, and democratic Czechoslovakia. Her skills at creating new institutions, identifying and mentoring dozens of highly talented young people, and mobilizing prominent leaders became indispensable with the Velvet Revolution and the Presidency of their friend Václav Havel. Luers is a pragmatic visionary, who uses her talents to solve problems and fill needs by guiding and inspiring members of her impressive network. FCS helped promote civil society and provided ad vice and expertise with offices in New York, Prague, and Bratislava in the years after Czechoslovakia became a free state in 1989. Luers established the Foundation for a Civil Society in New York and Prague in January 1990.ĭuring her residence in Prague with her husband, Ambassador William Luers – a 30-year career Foreign Service Officer – from 1983 to 1986 they became close to Václav Havel and Charter 77. Luers is the founding President of The Foundation for a Civil Society (FCS) and Co-Chair of the Project on Justice in Times of Transition. Now and then, poetry and performance take on an exceptional topicality in periods of political crisis, as these ephemeral and flexible art forms enable the reflection of relations and contexts that remain otherwise undiscussed.Wendy W. The exhibition presents authors from subcultures in socialist states along with contemporary positions. They did so by drawing attention to the material and medial dimension of language, and by creating performative situations for themselves and their audiences within which possibilities of verbal expression could be tested and acted out. Since the second half of the twentieth century, in particular poets and artists in Eastern Europe have taken up the challenge of reflecting on and investigating the instrumentalization of language for communicative and political-ideological purposes. Damals wie heute gewinnen Poetry & Performance in politischen Krisenzeiten eine besondere Brisanz, da in diesen ephemeren und flexiblen Formen Zusammenhänge behandelt werden können, die ansonsten unbesprochen blieben. Die Ausstellung präsentiert Autor*innen aus den Subkulturen sozialistischer Staaten neben zeitgenössischen Positionen. Sie tun dies mit ästhetischen Mitteln, indem sie die materielle und mediale Dimension der Sprache ins Zentrum der Aufmerksamkeit rücken und für sich und ihr Publikum performative Situationen schaffen, in denen Möglichkeiten sprachlicher Äußerung erprobt, durchgespielt und ausagiert werden. Jahrhunderts stellen sich vor allem Dichter*innen und Künstler*innen in Osteuropa der Herausforderung, die kommunikative und politisch-ideologische Indienstnahme der Sprache zu reflektieren und zu erforschen.
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