Julie Béna píše rektorovi UMPRUM ve věci výběrového řízení na vedoucí Ateliéru intermediální konfrontace

12. 11. 2019Artalk Infoservis

Publikujeme dopis umělkyně Julie Bény, která společně s Markétou Magidovou vyhrála v loňském roce výběrové řízení na vedení Ateliéru intermediální konfrontace. Navzdory výsledkům výběrového řízení prodloužil rektor UMPRUM Jindřich Vybíral o rok smlouvu Jiřímu Davidovi a letos na podzim vypsal nový konkurz.

Dear Mr V.,

today I will speak in my name only.

Today I feel a bit like this girl, the one that you fuck but that you don’t really want to introduce to your family, because she is not rich enough, because she is not smart enough, because she is not beautiful enough, because she is not Czech enough.

Today I feel like the girl you fuck between 4 and 5 PM, the one with no name.

Today I feel like the girl you can just text when your dick feels like it, but that you don’t respect enough to walk out with or to bring to a restaurant. Today I feel bad.

I feel bad, cause I know I have been used, targeted, abused and dumped.

Yesterday, I remember this, you were calling for UMPRUM to open itself to foreigners to have an international school for international students.

Today I learned from the open call, you are requesting a B2 level for Czech language, today I feel Čechy Čechům, and I feel bad for you and for the school.

Yesterday I remember you told me the situation must be postponed, I’ll need to do a bit of progress in Czech, that we will have time to prepare for the next open call.

Today I read the open call is not allowing me to apply, because it is impossible to manage to get a B2 in few months. Today I remember that some of your teachers do not have this level, so I wonder what they will become.

Yesterday I told you, you could use your power to create a situation for me to not be able to apply for the next open call. You smiled and said of course not.

Today you did it.

Yesterday you told me you will find a way to make me participate to the school.

Today, I re-read the mail sent to me October 29th to invite me to do a workshop in November without speaking about duration, fees and proposing for me to teach in cellar. Today I have the feeling of having been taken as a puppet. And today I feel we were all puppets in a game we didn’t know how to play.

Today I feel extremely humiliated and angry as a foreigner, as a woman, as an artist, as a wife, as a mother, but I don’t feel so hungry. By this I mean that you inviting me from time to time, to keep the appearance, to be the “maitresse” in this little cheap hidden restaurant, this is not something that I will accept. Because I think I want a different lover, the one who will bring me to his/her parents and be proud of me for what I am and what I can give. You know the only time we met, I told you that love is not in the words but in the acts.

 

So I guess this was not love.

Julie Béna

Prague, November 11th 2019