Why Indeed? Sources and Causes of Radicality in Czech Action Art
Why Indeed? Sources and Causes of Radicality in Czech Action Art

Summary/Abstract: The text named after Milan Knížák lecture as demonstration Why Indeed addresses the question of the specific radicalism of Czech action art, which does not primarily lie in the extremity or shocking corporeality of individual actions, but rather in their displacement from the conventional framework of the art world. Unlike their Western counterparts, Czech artists did not focus on bodily extremes, but instead on subtle gestures and everyday situations, through which they achieved a high degree of authenticity. The Czech form of action art emerged in a context different from that of the West – not as a reaction to the art market and institutionalized art, but as part of the social liberalization of the 1960s, and later as a form of resistance to the totalitarian regime after 1968.Artists such as Milan Knížák, Petr Štembera, Jan Mlčoch and Jiří Kovanda often worked in isolation, outside official institutions, without the possibility of presenting their work to the public. Their practice was driven by an inner necessity and was frequently a personal expression of freedom within an unfree society.

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