At least 360 artists, gallery owners and curators signed the open letter in support of Alexandra Kusá, who was dismissed together with the director of the National Theater.
ADVERTISINGAfter Thousands took to the streets of Bratislava In protest against the dismissal of the director of the country’s National Gallery, Alexandra Kusá, hundreds of representatives of the international art scene signed a letter in her defense last week.
Far-right Slovak Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová fired Kusá earlier this month along with theater director Matej Drlička, in what some in the country are calling a kind of dismissal political purge.
“This decision has undermined the independence of the cultural sector in your country and damaged the trust and reputation of Slovak culture at the international level,” the letter The letter calls for Kusá’s reinstatement and further urges Šimkovičová “not to make decisions about the guilt or innocence of cultural directors … solely on the basis of political expediency”.
“During her term in office, she focused entirely on the further development of the SNG for the benefit of museum visitors and the Slovak and international art scene in general,” says the letter of support for Kusá.
The prominent international signatories of the letter include Karola Kraus, General Director of the Vienna Mumok, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the board of the German museum association ICOM and Sebastian Cichocki, Chief Curator of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
After her dismissal, Šimkovičová said she was responsible for “several management errors” and was also the daughter of the architect Martin Kusý, who had led the reconstruction of the gallery.
Kusá responded that the allegations were “vague and largely fabricated” and pointed out that her relationship with Kusý had been known before her appointment in 2010.
The position of Kusá and her colleagues has been in jeopardy since Prime Minister Robert Fico appointed Šimkovičová as Minister of Culture last October. Fico’s left-nationalist Smer party is supporting the coalition government with allies such as the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party (SNS).
