Highlights in the history of Divus

Divus was established by Ivan Mečl in 1992 as an art publishing house and technically equipped creation center. Over time it grew into a project of wide cultural and production influence. One of its first publications was a fairytale by Tomáš Vejdovský, designed and illustrated by Markéta Othova, who has worked closely with Divus since the beginning. After several book publications the studio put out its first issue of the art revue Divus.  This large-format medium brought together outside art, style, the alternative, exclusive and tasteless—defining the tone for the entire project.  In 1995, Divus published Pavel Reisenauer’s Death After Life. From 1995 to 1996 Aleš Kuneš organized the group exhibitions “Bazar” and “Station.” The exhibitions opened the way for a wider spectrum of artist exhibitions, but his selection refused to play roles from the point of view of art; instead he integrated brave and unrestrained work. Aleš Kuneš and Markéta Othová together launched the traditional International Day of Unrealized Ideas on June 24, 1997 in Letna Park in Prague. The action, which encouraged the public to participate in artistic production, took place again in 1998. In 1997 Divus put out the first issue of Umělec, a magazine on contemporary art and culture. In 2000 the magazine began coming out in both Czech and English, and in 2002 one issue was produced in French. Lenka Lindaurová and the current editor-in-chief, Vladan Šír, headed the project. In 1997 and 1998 Divus and Radio 1 organized art evenings with unusual and lively programs at the club Roxy. At the end of 1997 there were several media collaborations with Radio Limonada Joe. Out of this emerged the infamous political party Solid Uncertainty—which produced unusual full-page ads and a number of public happenings. The most famous was the “March of the Czech Lion to the Prague Castle,” the goal being to influence the vote for president. Using a theme by Jan Svoboda, in 1998 Divus made an edition of a book-game called TAKITAK. A number of book objects for children and adults were produced on the principle of artwork for the understanding of the creative process. The series included work by František Skála, Petr Nikl, and Kateřina Vincourová, and there are works prepared by Jiří Příhoda and Jiří Černický. Cooperation on an exhibtion of František Kupka in 1999 in Prague’s Rudolfinum and the publication of the voluminous picture publication Kupka – Waldes verified the studio’s high-quality organization, production and publication pecision. At the end of 1999 Teledivision was established within Divus, aimed at the cutting edge of animated television work in cooporation with Obludárium, Kakalík, and Tomodači no Uran čan. It also made full use of new technology web applications and 3-D. In 2001, Divus held a presentation of the first mid-length films Death Exposed and Tequila Dance. From 2000 Umělec magazine and its guests participated in an international presentations, festivals, and exhibitions like Manifesta in Ljubljana, Art Forum in Berlin, Armory Show in New York, Art Basel and others. It organized several international exhibitions and actions, including an evening with Divus and Umělec in Berlin in 2000, an exhibition of contemporary Czech photography, “Fotok,” in Budapest in 2001, and the month-long multimedia presentation in Paris’ new Palais de Tokyo. In fall 2000, Divus published the first six comics in the Adventure series. In the summer of 2001 and 2002 Divus cooperated in the organization of the international comics festival Grrr!!! Žbuch!. At the beginning of 2002 Teledivision introduced the first part in its series “The Man Who Knew Too Much...” In 2001, Divus became co-founder of the music Channel O and created its design, animation, and videoart. And that’s only the beginning...

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