дежурный скептик в угасающем мире - Miroslav Tichý, my hero

   















Miroslav Tichý

I am a samurai. My sole aim is to destroy my enemies.

The police once forgot to pick me up on May Day. I already had my little suitcase packed and was waiting for them to come and take me to the insane asylum. I waited and waited, but they didn't come. I then got tired of waiting, left the house, and went out onto the square. There were red flags everywhere, women in traditional folk costume, Pioneers were marching in the street. At the town hall they had built a rostrum and on the podium someone was making a speech. I went to the church on the other side of the square, climbed the stairs, and sat down on the top step. I was then at the same height as the rostrum and could see everything. And everyone saw me. About two minutes passed before suddenly my policemen were standing beside me. And I was soon on the way to the insane asylum again.

People ask me, 'What are you, Mr. Tichý? Are you a painter, a sculptor, or a writer?' I reply, 'You know who I am? I am Tarzan in retirement.'

I am a prophet of decay and a pioneer of chaos, because only from chaos something new emerge. 

I cut a lens out of Plexiglas wiyh a knife, ground the lens, made a camera of wood and cardboard, and took pictures with that. Of course it worked. When I do something, it has to be precise. Truly, the lens was not precise, but maybe that's where the art is... Then I grind the lens with various types of sandpapers, first coarse sandpaper, then finer and finer, until you can see through it beautifully. And then what? It needs to be polished, that isn't a problem. You take toothpaste, mix it with cigarette ash, and then you polish it. And that's what I photographed with.

I didn't choose anything. I looked under the enlarger and whatever seemed like the world to me, I printed. But what is the world? Everything that is, that is the world. Whatever seemed like the world to me, I printed. That's all.

If you want to be famous, you have to be worse at something than everyone else in the world!