PROCES FESTIVAL
PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC / 2006
In Prague, as in Genoa, I was fascinated by the unoccupied historic buildings
that stood everywhere just crying out for cultural interim use. I rented a spacious
apartment in a rondo-cubist listed building in Prague-Bubenec, just opposite the
residence of the U.S. ambassador. Here my wife Sonja Vectomov and I regularly
put on soirées with classical concerts, which all of a sudden became frequented
not only by marginalized artists but increasingly by diplomats, museum directors and financial risk-takers, who brought their own Chateau Lafite-Rothschild.
In the circle of drinking companions of the Finnish ambassador, with whom I
got acquainted on these occasions, one evening a slick investor from Tel-Aviv
turned up, the head of a consortium assigned to upgrading the area of „Pražská
Tržnice“, the former Prague slaughterhouse, which since the fall of the iron cur-
tain housed a massive Vietnamese market. I happened to speak to him about the
numerous empty warehouses and he immediately gave me the green light for a
two-month rent-free use of a vacated furniture store.
The building warmed the
heart of even a fussy Zurich squatter race, offering ideal conditions for a museum
stroke nightclub with its 600 square meters of exhibition space, central heating
and modern sanitary facilities. Due to the legality of this project we at once
got offers of financial support from various sponsors. Once again I was able to
host my constantly increasing orbit of fellow artists and musicians who blended
perfectly into the bizarre backdrop of countless market stalls full of counterfeit trademark products.
