Cooperation with the Foundation Fund Spa Luhačovice.
The successful series of literary stays in Luhačovice organized by the Spa Luhačovice Foundation continues for the third year in 2022. The author couple Šesták-Strnadová, with whom we conducted an interview below, are the first of the five residents who stayed at the Castle in Luhačovice to devote themselves to their work. Petr Šesták is a photographer and author of three prose books, Adéla Strnadová is a painter and draftsman. Their common goal was to create a comic book depicting the disappearing genius loci of wineries and wine shops in Luhačovice.
How did you like working and staying at the castle in Luhačovice?
Petr: A castle among block of flats, spa architectural gems, seniors in Elektra, Obětová hora, Jezírko lásky and other strange local names, one great cafe and mineral water flowing from the ground, which we have to buy in a sámoska in Prague. Luhačovice definitely has its own spirit. It is not always ideal for creative work, when the place of residence is interesting, it distracts one and one wants to get to know it. But we tried to combine it somehow sensibly.
Were you working on a specific output? What kind?
Adéla: Petr and I both worked in a wine bar at some point in our lives. You meet so many people in a day that small conversations cannot be avoided and micro-stories are created here. Petr began to record these situations and a kind of winery snapshots were created from it. During the lockdown, there was no space at home for me to paint large canvases, so together we started processing Peter’s texts in comic form.
Petr: So when we asked the locals where there was an interesting wine bar in Luhačovice, it was of course purely question of business. I have the feeling that these classic, now-disappearing, wine bars are a rather specific environment that has not yet been artistically processed much. Unlike, for example, a plebeian pub or an intellectual cafe, both have a strong position in Czech culture.
What about your contact with the locals?
Adéla: We spent most of our time at the castle or went on trips, we went out in the evening to local businesses to gather new inspiration. We didn’t meet many locals, with the exception of our hosts.
Petr: It’s also partly due to the fact that we arrived at the peak of the tourist spa season, when the locals go on vacation elsewhere. That’s why we didn’t have any of our public readings, usually a few interesting locals show up at those.
What impressed you the most here?
Petr: I think it’s Jurkovič and his vision of a spa for body and soul. It is a pity that the project outlined by him was not fully implemented. Although there are quite a few “quality buildings” built on his urban plan, and I generally like when styles mix and match, the idea of an entire spa being built in his style is fascinating. It would have been absolutely unique.
What surprised you?
Petr: I was pleasantly surprised how pensioners enjoy their spa stay. It’s great that in the evening they go out to “live music” establishments, flirt with each other and start it on the dance floor. Normalization in our country brought up a generation of people holed up at home in front of TV screens. Today’s society has gotten used to relegating the elderly to the sidelines, actually not seeing them in public space. Once I was in a pub in Brussels and I was surprised by the mixture of ages that gathered there. An ordinary pub where you go for a beer. During the evening, a lady in her sixties jumped up on the table and danced. Everyone around clapped and cheered her on. The scene here is hard to imagine. Perhaps only in Luhačovice could something like this happen!
Is this your first residence? If not – can you offer a comparison?
Petr: Last year, Adéla was at an art symposium in Mikulov, where she also stayed at the castle. So she is already an experienced court painter. I have been to several residences, but almost every time it was completely secluded, for example on a homestead near Český Šternberk or in the middle of bogs and pastures in Worpswede in northern Germany. In contrast, Luhačovice is quite lively. It was also new for me to work as a couple for two weeks this intensively. When I’m alone, I’ve already come up with some rituals that get me into a creative mood. The two of us had to coordinate the work rhythm, which is always more complicated, but at the same time, it can also kick-start creative activity.
How was your time here?
Adéla: Time passed slowly here. The calm rhythm of the spa and tourists contributed to this, no one was chasing anything.
Petr: At the residence, slowness is important. If you’re nervous that you won’t get anything done and won’t use the allotted time to the fullest, then things will be even worse for you. For me, on such stays, it is very important to be able to go out into the countryside, walk, not have to be aware of where to walk, so one is not run over by a passing car, nor hears any engines, just enjoying the landscape and sort out your thoughts. The spa and the composed landscape in the surroundings are absolutely ideal for this.
And what impression did the spa make on you?
Adéla: We appreciated the beautiful architecture set in a charming landscape. We enjoyed stopping at places where there were labels with QR codes and listening to short stories from the Luhačovice Sound Map on the spot. It’s a great project. We also liked the differently designed birdhouses located around the spa. I was excited about the White Quarter, I was just sad how the character of the street changed for the worse. Instead of the original line of trees, cars are parked there today, and some houses have been insensitively renovated. On the contrary, I think the reconstruction of Radun was successful.
What’s next for you?
Petr: You can’t get a lot done directly during the two-week residency, but you can make progress and more importantly jumpstart further efforts. So we hope that now we will be able to work on winery comics regularly even as part of our normal “operation”. Then I am also preparing the publication of such a travelogue for children next year, and in Luhačovice I also started writing something that could possibly become my next prose book. Another year at AVU awaits Adéla. And in addition to creative work and studies, we have to do something that sustains us. We probably won’t be bored.
The interview was conducted by Magdaléna Petráková from the Foundation Fund Spa Luhačovice and translated to English by Benedikt Thienen