Architect Viktor Rudiš

* 1927

  • “We had quite the reputation in Brno by that point, that we were a competitive team, and so in 1967 we were asked to participate in the contest for creating the pavilion for Osaka, Japan, and to our surprise we won. And now, this happened to us in ’68 when the Russians arrived here. I was on a trip to France with my wife and a telegraph came saying that we won Osaka. Our children were at a summer camp and so we hurried back home with the occupation taking place. These are crazy stories, the era brought some horrible situations. And in addition to that we had to work on Osaka, none of those bureaucrats were really interested in us.”

  • “Party members would receive assignments and he got an assignment to create a statue of Gottwald, which he refused. Makovský could afford to do that, he was a national artist and a peculiar person, he dared to do what very few others dared. Eventually, though, he did create those statues around the theatre and he also gave instructions concerning the placement of everything, and his task was to surround the theatre with statues, which he eventually succeeded to do.”

  • “And František Zounek, a member of the party, was obviously involved in the reformist movement in ’68. Zounek was a party member but his views were reformist. They were trying to push those reforms in those circles, which, after ’68, when they found out, obviously the normalization practices hit them hard and Zounek was expelled from the party, which was really hard for him, he truly believed in it, he saw a social aspect in everything, justice against capitalism.”

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    Brno, 31.10.2017

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The communists buried our exhibition in Osaka, Japan. But I was never bitter about it

authentic foto
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zdroj: vlastní

Viktor Rudiš was born on the 9thof June 1927 in Brno. He studied architecture during the communist era, a time that did not favour grandiose architectonic projects. Despite the adversity he has interesting projects on his resume – the Lesná neighbourhood in Brno is considered to be one of the best in the republic, for instance. Viktor studied at an engineering school and, following the recommendation of his uncle, a well-known architect named Evžen Škarda, he passed the faculty of architecture’s entry exams, which led to an opportunity to meet legends like Bedřich Rozehnal, Bohuslav Fuchs, or Vincenc Makovský. After graduating he worked at the Research Institute of Construction and Architecture (“Výzkumný ústav výstavby a architektury”) in Brno before being dismissed for his background. He was offered work at Stavoprojekt Brno. He and his colleagues participated in a number of international competitions and won the international contest to create the Czech pavilion for the Expo 1970 fair in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition included objects created by major Czech artists and based on a libretto written by Adolf Kroupa, the then director of the Brno House of Arts, and Jan Skácel, a poet from Brno. The libretto was based on the human lifetime divided into times of joy, anxiety, and hope. This reflected the period of the year 1969, following the occupation of Czechoslovakia. The pavilion was a success, with about ten million visitors. However, it was considered as an act of enmity even during the exhibition’s launch. Rudé právo described it as a provocation paid for by manual workers’ money, it was forbidden to publish any sort of texts concerning the exhibition and practically no one spoke about it for the next twenty years. Some artists were experiencing problems since then, including Viktor Rudiš. When his son applied for the study programme at the faculty of architecture it was pointed out to him that his father has a blot on his reputation because of Osaka. Viktor Rudiš continued working at Stavoprojekt Brno until his retirement and later founded an architectonic company with his son. He still works and lives in Brno.