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Ivan Martin Jirous (23 September 1944 – 9 November 2011) was a
Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...
poet and
dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...
, best known as the artistic director of the Czech
psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
group
The Plastic People of the Universe The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. They are considered the foremost representatives of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which defied Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Members of the band o ...
, and later one of the key figures of the Czech underground during the
communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...
. He is more frequently known as Magor, which can be roughly translated as "shithead",Zantovsky 2014, p161 "loony", or "fool" (though meant as a positive title), a nickname given to him by the experimental poet . Trained as an
art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...
but unable to work in this field in
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
under the Communist regime, Jirous became a member of the dissident subculture, and during the period of normalisation, Jirous was imprisoned five times for his activities. His particular contribution to the dissident movement was the concept of "second culture", according to which simply expressing oneself through forbidden cultural and artistic activities would ultimately undermine the
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...
system,Zantovsky 2014, p.202 a concept closely related to his friend
Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
's "living in truth", and Václav Benda's "parallel polis". Jirous won the Jaroslav Seifert Prize in 2006 and the
Tom Stoppard Prize The Tom Stoppard Prize () is a literary award given annually for outstanding primarily non-fiction work by a writer of Czech origin. It was established in 1983 and first awarded in 1984, to Eva Kantůrková for '' My Companions in the Bleak House' ...
in 1985 for the poem ''Magor's Swan Song'' ().


Early life

Jirous was born in
Humpolec Humpolec (; ) is a town in Pelhřimov District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. Administrative division Humpolec consists of 12 municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): ...
in Vysočina. His mother was a teacher, and his father worked in tax. He completed his secondary education at Dr. A Hrdlička's Secondary Comprehensive and Primary School in Humpolec (now known as Dr A Hrdlička's Gymnasium). Initially, Jirous wanted to study at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), but his cousin Jiří Padrta, editor of the journal ''Výtvarná práce'', steered him towards art history. In 1962, Jirous sat the entrance exam to study history of art at the Philosophy Faculty of
Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...
in
Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...
. A condition of entry for students at the time was the completion of a year in industry before beginning their studies; in Jirous' case, he had to work as a construction worker and stoker. Jirous studied between 1963 and 1968. The topic of his diploma thesis was visual poetry in the works of the poets Jiří Kolář and Henri Michaux. His sister Zara, who was two years older than him and married to the photographer , also pursued fine art.


Underground activities

In 1967, Jirous became familiar with the underground group The Primitives Group, and later in 1969 became the artistic director and manager of
The Plastic People of the Universe The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) is a Czech rock band from Prague. They are considered the foremost representatives of Prague's underground culture (1968–1989), which defied Czechoslovakia's Communist regime. Members of the band o ...
(PPU). His wife, Věra Jirousová, wrote a lot of the band's early lyrics. Due to his opposition to his country's totalitarian regime, Jirous was prohibited from publishing his literature. Instead, he had to work as a night watchman and gardener to avoid being unemployed, which was a punishable offence. Jirous was imprisoned five times for his underground organisation and artistic activities. He was often cautioned under paragraph 202 - "disturbing the peace". Jirous was first imprisoned between 1973 and 1974 for an incident in a pub with a retired Security Service Major. Jirous was convicted alongside Eugen Brikcius, Daníček and Jaroslav Kořán. After singing the song "Send the Russian killers to hell where they belong" and exchanging words with the Major, Jirous ate the middle of the newspaper ''
Rudé právo ''Rudé právo'' ( Czech for ''Red Justice'' or ''The Red Right'') was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. History and profile ''Rudé právo'' was founded in 1920 when the party was splitting from the social demo ...
'' and exclaimed "Today I ate ''Rudé právo'', just like one day we will gobble up the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
". In June 2011, his conviction was overturned by the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
. Jirous's most influential work was ''Notes on the Third Czech Musical Revival'', which he published in exile in 1975. The work was considered a policy statement for the non-political Czech underground and included: # Radical rejection of any form of coercion; # The renunciation of any imposed artistic programme; # Emphasise authenticity in life and artistic creation; # Determination against totalitarian structures. According to Jirous, "the aim of the underground is to create an alternative culture. A culture which will be independent of official communication channels, social evaluation, and the hierarchy of values as imposed by the establishment. A culture which cannot aim to destroy the establishment, for that will only play into the establishment's hands." Jirous compiled an anthology of underground poetry entitled ''Egon Bondy to the 45th birthday of the disabled siblings''. He also organised several "festivals of independent culture"; the first took place in Postupice in September 1974, forcefully broken up by police, followed by another in Bojanovice in 1976, which also served as a belated celebration of Jirous' marriage to his second wife Juliana. In early 1976 Jirous was introduced to
Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
for the first time, via a mutual friend, František Smejkal.Zantovsky 2014, p162 The two men became friends and allies, and Jirous is mentioned several times in Havel's '' Letters to Olga''. On 16 March 1976, Jirous was arrested again, along with the PPU and many other musicians. The whole trial was widely publicised by the regime as a deterrent against troublemakers and hooligans; Czechoslovak Television released a documentary about them called ''An attack on culture'', and an episode of television series '' Thirty Cases of Major Zeman'', entitled ''Mimicry'' and starring
Jiří Lábus Jiří Lábus (born 26 January 1950) is a Czech actor, comedian and voice actor. Career Jiří Lábus was born on 26 January 1950 in Prague. From a young age, Jiří Lábus was fascinated by theatre and cinema, often attending performances and l ...
, portrayed the group as drug addicts and terrorists. The trial took place on 21–23 September 1976, and Jirous was convicted for "aggravated hooliganism", along with the musician and pastor Svatopluk Karásek, Pavel Zajíček of the group DG 307, and Vratislav Brabenec from PPU, and imprisoned for a second time, for 18 months.Zantovsky 2014, p165 The trial became a
cause célèbre A ( , ; pl. ''causes célèbres'', pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for th ...
, and organised opposition to the charges brought together for the first time the originally apolitical underground groups and political dissidents led by Havel, which eventually led to the creation of
Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...
. On his release from prison in 1977, Jirous signed the Charter, and also organised a third "festival of independent culture", at
Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
's country house at Hrádeček in Trutnov District. Future concerts could only be held as private events since public performances by PPU had been banned. A month after returning home, Jirous was again sentenced to time in prison after he made a speech at a exhibition about the insuperable distinction between official and unofficial culture. He served this sentence between 1977 and 1978. In 1979 he helped create the samizdat ''Vokno'', and wrote the unfinished work ''The True Story of the Plastic People''. He also became a member of the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS). Jirous's fourth spell in prison was due to his role in producing, publishing and distributing the magazine ''Vokno'', along with , Michal Hýbek, Milan Frič, and Jaroslav Chnápek. The trial took place in May 1982 with strict security and attended by specially selected people, loyal to the regime. The judgement deemed that articles from ''Vokno'' were antisocial, with grossly indecent subject matter and a disrespect for society. Between 1981 and 1985, Jirous was again imprisoned, officially for disturbing the peace, but also, according to
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
and VONS, for unsubstantiated charges of illegal possession of marijuana, allegedly found during a house search. In 1984, Jirous was named Prisoner of the Month by Amnesty International. It was during this time that he wrote the poems later collected as ''Magor's Swan Song'' (), for which he later won the Tom Stoppard Award. Between 1985 and 1987, Jirous was under supervision as part of his previous convictions, and had to report daily to the Public Security Office. His fifth imprisonment was in response to his signature on the petition "Tak dost", created in response to the death of the dissident Pavel Wonka. Jirous was imprisoned for "an attack on the state and social organisation" together with Jiri Tichy, and was in prison from 1988 until 25 November 1989, when the President of the Republic waived the rest of his sentence.


After 1989

After the
Velvet Revolution The Velvet Revolution () or Gentle Revolution () was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November to 28 November 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Pa ...
in 1989, Jirous became a member of the Czech PEN club. He and wrote to the Interior Ministry in protest against the police intervention at CzechTek 2004. Until his death, Jirous lived in Prague and in a converted farmhouse in Vysočina, where the Magorovo Vydří music festival took place every year from the revolution until 2005. Since 2006 it has been held at Skalákovy mlýn. Although his friend Jaroslav Eri Fric described him as "a devotee of purity, tenderness and justice", Jirous was vulgar and confrontational, often intentionally, and sometimes physically aggressive when drunk. Jirous died suddenly on 9 November 2011. His memorial service took place on 17 November 2011 in the Church of Saint Ignatius in Prague, with the service conducted by Bishop Václav Malý. He was buried in a local cemetery to his home in Vysočina.


Personal life

Jirous's first wife was (1944–2011), a poet and art historian. In 1972 their son was born, Tobiáš, now an actor, writer and DJ. Jirous is named as Tobias's father on his birth certificate, but Tobias's biological father is in fact the philosopher
Jiří Němec Jiří Němec (born 15 May 1966) is a Czech former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He started his professional career playing football in Czechoslovakia, winning two titles with Sparta Prague. He then moved to Germany, where h ...
. In 1976, Jirous married for a second time, to the painter Juliana, née Stritzková (1943–2023), the granddaughter of Josef Florian. Jirous and Juliána had two daughters, (born 1980) and (born 1981). Jirous spent a large proportion of his daughters' childhoods in prison, but remained in contact with his family. The marriage broke down shortly after his release. His daughter Františka is a novelist, and the chair of the organisation Magor's Estate, which aims to transform Jirous's estate in Vysočina into a monument to poets. Marta continued her father's poetry in the collection ''Walk with an Angel''. Jirous also had a son, Daniel (born 1992), with translator Daniela Degtěvová. Daniel studies architecture and lives in Prague. Jirous was in a relationship with the songwriter, Dáša Vokatá, from the 1990s until his death in 2011.


Works

Ivan Martin Jirous first started publishing art criticism during the 1960s. At first, he focused on foreign modern art (
Russian avant-garde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...
,
Lucio Fontana Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Italian Argentines, Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor, and theorist. He is known as the founder of Spatialism and exponent of Abstract art, abstract painting as the f ...
,
Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...
), then later examined the relationship between
beat music Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music Music genre, genre that developed around Liverpool in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from British rock and roll, British and Music of the United St ...
and art, and later, he specialised in the ''Křižovnická school of clean humour without the joke'' ( Naděžda Plíšková, Karel Nepraš and Jan Steklík). Jirous was also interested in older art, such as the sculptures of Václav Levý. Jirous contributed to journals including ''Ateliér'', ''Divadlo'' ("Theatre"), ''Host do domu'' ("Guesthouse"), ''Sešity pro literaturu a diskusi'' ("Notebooks for literature and discussion"), ''Výtvarná práce'' ("Visual works"), ''Výtvarné umění'' ("Fine art"), ''Výtvarný život'' ("Visual life"), to the international periodicals ''Art Canada'' and ''Exile Testimony'', as well as the samizdat publication ''Vokno''.


Features of Magor's poetry

* Macaronic language, paraphrasing * Expression * Imperfect rhymes * Assonance * Acrostic * Sarcasm and irony * Vulgarism and Catholic elements * Self-expression, existential depth * Search for self and God * Spirituality * Addressing specific people, referring to other authors * "I do not consider myself a poet, rather I know that I love poetry"


Poetry collections (Czech titles)

* ''Magorův ranní zpěv'', samizdat 1975 - complete collection of his first poems * ''Magorova krabička'', samizdat 1979 * ''Mládí nevykouřené'', samizdat 1975, 1979 and 1980 - in all three of his first poetry collections, Egon Bondy's influence is evident * ''Magorovo borágo'', samizdat 1981 * ''Magorova mystická růže'', samizdat 1981 * ''Magorovy labutí písně'', samizdat 1985, London 1989 - This collection arose while Jirous was in prison and was smuggled out to be published. Since he was unable to write while in prison, Jirous instead had to memorise all of his work. The collection includes a number of contemporary cultural and public figures which means it can serve as a "poetic dictionary" of representatives of dissent from that period. This collection received the Tom Stoppard award. * ''Ochranný dohled'', samizdat 1985 - thematically follows ''Magorovy labutí písně'' * ''Magorovi ptáci'', 1987 * ''Magorova summa'', 1998 * ''Magorova vanitas'', 1999 * ''Ubíječ labutí'', 2001 * ''Rattus norvegicus'', 2004 * ''Popelnice života'', 2004 * ''Okuje'', 2008 * ''Rok krysy'', 2008 * ''Úloža'', 2013 * ''Magorův noční zpěv'', 2013


Children's work

* ''Magor dětem'', (1982-1986) samizdat 1986 - poems and fairy tales which were written in letters to his daughter from prison.


Other books

* ''Magorův zápisník'', 1999, a collection of cultural texts and essays written between 1965-1990. * ''Magorovy dopisy'', 2006, letters written between 1973 and 1985 to his wives Věra and Juliana from various Czech prisons. * ''Humpolecký Magor'', 2007, a collection of memories from his classmates and teachers from Humpolec, which are combined with some of Jirous's unpublished works.


CDs

* Agon Orchestra & Ivan M. Jirous - ''Magorova Summa'', 2009, Guerilla records, read by Ivan M. Jirous. * Ivan Martin Jirous - ''Pravdivý příběh Plastic People'', 2009, read by Ivan M. Jirous, an Oldřich Kaiser. * Ivan Martin Jirous - ''Magorovy labutí písně'', 2011, Guerilla records, read by Ivan M. Jirous. * Ivan Martin Jirous - ''Magorovi ptáci a další příběhy'', 2012, Guerilla records, read by Ivan M. Jirous.


References


Bibliography

*


External links


The Official Website of the Plastics -- Czech and English

Ivan Martin "Magor" Jirous awarded 2006 Jaroslav Seifert Prize (Czech Radio)

Osobnost českého undergroundu, Magor Jirous slaví 65 let (lidové noviny)

Documentary about Jirous
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jirous, Ivan Martin 1944 births 2011 deaths People from Humpolec Czech male poets Charter 77 signatories Czech anti-communists 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century Czech male writers Czech monarchists Charles University alumni