I came straight from the pasture to the faculty of arts
Stáhnout obrázek
Jan Slovák was born in Gottwaldov on 18 December 1957. He grew up in the village of Pradlisko near Ludkovice in a multigenerational, strongly religious family on a small farm with a solid family background. He worked at the farm as a child and soon developed a relationship with nature and reading. Following elementary school and high school in Gottwaldov, he entered the Faculty of Arts of Charles University where he studied history and philosophy during the period of normalisation. His studies did not run smoothly and he did not finish in due time. While still a student, he took up art, especially graphic art, a read a lot on his own outside the official framework of his studies. After leaving the Faculty, he took a stoker job at a boiler plant in Strahov and found an environment that allowed him to continue his artistic and literary activities. In the boiler plant, he met people from the circles of unofficial culture and intellectual environment. After 1989, he lived in Zlín, working as a teacher of English, history and civics at a secondary medical school. In addition to his teaching work, he continued to work as an artist, exhibiting his work regularly with the Zlín Circle art group. He printed his texts and graphics in literary periodicals, and has authored two books of texts accompanied by graphics (Texts, Old Ordinances). He is married and has raised three children with his wife Marie Zvoníčková. At the time of the filming he lived and at Paseky in Provodov and taught in Zlín.
