CULTURAL OXYGEN 3/2017 Editorial / Magda Vášáryová The Image of Slovakia Drawn by Our Culture / Zuzana Mistríková The Pink Elephant: Hooray, we have won! / ICP Interview with Director of the Orava Gallery, Eva Ľuptáková / Magda Vášáryová Cultural institutions in Slovakia - a relationship without love / Martin Katuščák Survey The Protection of Cultural Heritage and Its Importance for Cultural Communication in Slovakia / Miloš Dudáš Monitoring Dictionary Editorial Since their birth, our cultural institutions have not grown a beard too long. Cultural institutions managed by the State are a major achievement of the modern centralisation and the belief that the State is still the best art historian and patron. Many still do believe so. The fashion of establishing libraries, galleries, museums, philharmonics has swept the world not so long ago and we did not resist that too. Fashion is fashion. Since then, we have started seeing big building with lots of employees, strategic planning of the arts and financing from people's taxes as a normal part of the cultural life of every country, and even a great deal of prestige. Culture demands that, after all. Nevertheless, it is a good idea to ask the question in the context of Slovak cultural policy, what it was we did well and where we went wrong in laying the foundations of the national pride, what is to continue working like it has worked until now and what would be good a idea to change. However, we consider our cultural institutions a sacred symbol of the Slovak culture, and a critical view could help us not only to spend our money better, but also to contribute to the modernisation of our national cultural identity, which is the next urgent task if we want to become the "core" of the EU. Slovak overtone flutes or dancing girls in national costumes, who are always young, will not do to change what we think of ourselves. Of Slovaks as Europeans! The worst thing which can happen, and which we are witnessing today and every day, is when a gallery or a museum or another institution of culture becomes a sinecure of a person until the end of his or her life, because those positions are so scarce, or when their carefully selected directors become just ordinary little bureaucrats in the hands of a minister of culture. Two years ago we highlighted the fact at ICP that our cultural super-managers must bend down before a master politician and beg to go to Vienna, just right around the corner, to see some exhibitions. You can bet this has not changed until this day. And so we have prepared, for you to read in autumn, a few critical reflections on our cultural institutions, their structure, and their financing. This issue is full of facts, criticism, and contemplation. Because there is no thing sacred to us which is not in heaven! Magda Vášáryová Slovakia - an unknown creature, but an important neighbour As long as the state at our borders was Czechoslovakia, at least the Slovaks were its unknown part to Austrians! The interesting thing is that many Austrians at the borders in the East had a natural knowledge of Bratislava (Pressburg, Pozsony) in that times. Bol to akýsi pocit susedstva z minulosti, pretože sme boli spojení Viedenskou električku a staršia generácia si zachovala akú- takú spomienku na Slovákov. Not only as farm workers who came from behind the Morava, but also in culture, known cabbage markets and, of course, for example, the sheep cheese and the like foods not known to us. Over time, however, the information that all of this is linked to Slovakia faded away. As a result, the cultural actions and significant domestic achievements in the field of culture and science, of which learned even from behind the iron curtain, were not associated with Slovaks. They had no inscription reading Slovakia. Of course, this image has changed a bit. Also because to the people in Vienna the Opera House in Bratislava is like a second home, or even an escape to normalcy, when they can no more watch and understand the innovative plays and directors' unusual concepts in Vienna. A great response was the one to the European Capital of Culture which was the city of Košice. Every Austrian who travelled by train to Slovakia passed through the central part of Slovakia, which offers fascinating testament of an ancient culture, and exceptional architecture. In particular, I was interested in the Gothic churches. This might have also been the Fuggers who left an unforgettable trace in the country. Unfortunately, we know too little of that in Vienna... And so, it has gotten better lately, because after some time there is a common cultural exchange not only in the area of culture and scientific research, but mainly in the economic field. Some relationships of the past have been restored naturally. For example, the shipping transport on the Danube between Vienna and Bratislava, running several times a day. Hopping on and visiting neighbours has become a must for every Viennese citizen. It is still not possible to say the two big cities will merge in the future, but there is a significant migration of the Slovak population moving slowly but surely and spreading away from the Austrian border to Vienna, and occupying the border villages. Probably the main problem is that moving towards each other is truly upon us, it may occur at any time, and does not need any special effort. I would say, however, that both Austrians and Slovakians will need to work more towards communicating with each other. So we get to know each other better. Slovakia has already got its autonomous face not overshadowed by Prague, it is an independent country with its own population and its own cultural development. To intensify this feeling is one of the tasks in the future, and the European Union has created a number of supporting tools which can help us. For example, the Schengen Agreement or the euro! Bratislava is in fact linked to the Danube River much more intensely than Vienna. The river has created and continues to create opportunities for cultural links, which we need to make more use of. We in Austria have to realise more what incredible possibilities have come to exist by the opening of borders and the political developments in our neighbours' country after 1989. This is not just about cities, we have also gained a lot from the quick-paced economic life, and the related social life among us. The free movement of labour and moving companies, banks, will slowly but surely contribute to a substantial change in the image of Slovakia in Austria. To become friends indeed, we need the knowledge of our neighbours, and a thoughtful perception and acknowledgement of them! Erhard Busek The Picture of Slovakia Drawn by Our Culture Culture is an umbrella concept containing not only an aesthetic, but also an ethical, sociological and economic dimension. It is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, law, morals, customs and any other capabilities and habits adopted by a person as a member of the society. Culture may be actually used to denote the human way of life. Every culture is a specific way of life of a particular defined group of people. Living culture means above all the performing arts, musical arts, literature and book culture, fine arts, architecture, design, cinema and audio-visual arts, and communication media. a komunikačné médiá. At present it is not possible to look at each area in isolation because the mutual permeation of these areas is a global trend. Creating multimedia projects with an emphasis on new media, conceptual art, as well as the emergence of disparate heterogeneous activities that combine traditional and modern arts begin to play a big role. Culture is not just an external manifestation, but mostly an intrinsic symbol of quality of life of an individual and the society. It is created, in particular, by learning in family, preschool education, school education, extra-curricular educational activities, direct and indirect influence of the immediate environment, and the shared values individuals and the society are willing to accept. If we had to name the image of Slovakia being created by culture in the whole complexity of this concept, then this would have to be a scientific study. And that is what I do not want to write. Therefore, let me address just some aspects and, of course, from my subjective point of view. What is the picture of Slovakia created by media? Whether we like it or not, media influence very much the way we perceive the country we live in and the overall atmosphere in the society. The Slovak media environment has undergone major transformations over the past twenty-five years. First, there were changes related to changing economic and political order, then the formation of an independent state, and, finally, the technological developments, and the onset of the information society. The size and language quality of the media market is determined by its capacity. After the boom of the Internet, space is created for the emergence of new media. As it was mainly companies to become the media owners whose principal business were not the media as such, we tackled the problem of economic pressure to shift them toward tabloids. The media try to be (often at any cost) more successful than competitors, to win more readers or viewers, in order to get as big piece of the advertising cake as possible. People with clear aesthetic or ethical vision about how a medium (of any focus) should look like, with the responsibility to perceive problems in the longer term than the next month, or year, and then the ability to implement to implement this vision, have appeared in managerial positions in the media only sporadically.