BARBARA BENISH

Dialogue: Prague/Los Angeles began as an idea between two women: Barbara Benish (USA) and Zdenka Gabalová (CZ). They had a vision to start a conversation through art that would bridge the two countries- in the years before the Velvet Revolution was even imagined and their two countries were engaged in a Cold War.

Benish was searching for ways to expand traditional exhibition practices as an artist, which in California in the 1980's had hit a market high. She bonded with the artists in Prague and Brno working in the parallel structures and showing their art in the hops fields and courtya of Prague. In Czechoslovakia the parallel systems' art scene was thriving; presenting a cultural phenomenon in the otherwise repressive totalitarian regime that had kept the borders closed to the west for nearly 40 years.

In the summer of 1989, twelve artists from California were exhibited along their Czechoslovak counterparts in Prague, many traveling across the world to create new works in person. Over 5000 people attended the two exhibitions and symposium,  groundbreaking at the time. By the following summer, the Berlin Wall was down, democracy restored to the small country in Central Europe, and the Czechoslovak artists traveled to exhibit in Los Angeles in five venues across the city. Two catalogue were produced. And dozens of friendships blossomed.