Dissent in the State Security Network - that is the name of the exhibition that opened this week in Bratislava. It is made up of photos from the State Security, stored in the Archive of the Institute of National Memory.
On the panels are photos of numerous Bratislava dissidents, from underground culture, Christian dissent, visual arts, creators of performance art, alternative music, theater and creators of samizdat.
The exhibition includes "secret" photos from the surveillance of the well-known couple Lasica and Satinský, as well as writer and dissident Dominik Tatarka.
Curator Ľudmila Pastierová said: "The history of resistance against the communist regime during the period of normalization (1969 - 1989) was written by hundreds of courageous personalities who were not afraid to speak out openly and publicly against the seemingly all-powerful regime."
"The stories of many can be reconstructed thanks to materials from the former intelligence and security services. They show us the often monstrous persecution machinery and repressive methods of the regime, which forced obedience from citizens and which helped it control and control the population for more than forty years," she said.
Some of the photos are from the personal archives of dissidents.
"They are simple documentary photographs, the quality of the photographs is unimportant," said exhibition Václav Macek, director of the Month of Photography festival. “The important thing is that they talk about the fact that they were not allowed to breathe. Those photographs tell about the fact that for some people, it was a suffocating regime.’
The exhibition is installed on the fence of the Umelka Gallery (in front of the Old Bridge).
