2014, CAN YOU TELL ME WHICH CITY I AM IN?

ONGOING PERFORMANCE TAKING PLACE AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD

NOVEMBER 2013, "PRIVATIZE MY BODY",PERFORMANCE FEST. MALAMUT, TOWN HALL, OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC

FILM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHxpKFjKbAg&feature=youtu.be


Since the apartments of the miners from Ostrava region were stolen by capitalist Bakala during the "privatization process" and privatization is a "mantra" leading to a contemporary "freedom" and the miners lost their jobs in this process so I decided to suggest the privatization plan for the city Ostrava and I would offer for it a very lucrative object and would be my own body.

MARCH 2013, WROCLAW, POLAND

This performance piece I did with my students at Wroclav University…they worked with the woman's body within the context of contemporary consumer capitalist society…they used their common hair and turned it into the phallic object so desired by the market…their guerrilla performance was stopped by the security guards pulling them out of the "temple" of the market…

JUNE 2013, PERFORMANCE AT THE SITE OF THE BOSTON BOMBING, BOSTON, USA

Aug.2012,"Washing Out my Memories with Vltava Water","(A) VOID GALLERY" on the riverbank of the Vltava river in Prague, Czech

Recently I wrote an autobiographical novel which was published in Prague, describing my memories from the Czech underground's "Second Culture" movement which I was part of.

https://www.kosmas.cz/knihy/158648/proved-vola-svetem-volem-zustane/

Values of third movement were absolutely incompatible with the values of contemporary capitalistic society. Therefore I washed the text of his book with the contemporary water of the Vltava river in order to alter the meaning of the language and to "conform" to the

contemporary social consensus (totalitarian capitalism). At the end of this "amnesia conversion" Ilet his book to float on the river, hopefully to someday join the ocean

of all forgotten memories...

Here you can download the chapter from a book published in Poland describing this performance:
https://uloz.to/!fkgcG5MX2/milan-kohout-politics-of-erasure-pdf

Colosseum redevelopment into a bank, International theater festival PUF, Pula, Croatia, June 2012

Here is the picture and a U Tube video link from a durational performance I did in Pula, Croatia on PUF International Theater Festival.

Since we let banksters to run our society why not to redevelop one of the most valuable world heritage side into a bank?

FILM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2c4_isRIoQ&feature=youtu.be

"Real Mother's Ashes for Sale", Performance Art Festival "Semeno dobra" Prague, Wenceslas Square,Czech R., 2012

Under capitalism everything is for sale. All human values. So why not to sell even mother's ashes (I used the real mother's ashes)

"Mein Kampf Religious Fascism" Street Performance, Christ on Mount Olive, Olomouc, Czech Republic, 2012

Occupy Olomouc, From October till May, 2012, Every Day, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Translation: 
 
WAKE UP OR IT WILL BE WORSE OCCUPY OLOMOUC 

Durational Performance Occupy Olomouc, started by Milan Kohout

Olomouc, Czech Republic , each day ever since Oct 15 till now

Since October 15, when I started a durational performance inspired by the world movement "Occupy", a group of the local people have been meeting every day between 5PM and 7PM in the main square.  We are discussing the politics of the exploitation by the capitalistic financial industry. On Oct 17 (a day of celebration of the Velvet Revolution in 1989) almost 300 people came.

September 2011, Malamut Performance Art Festival, Czech Republic

September 2011, Malamut Performance Art Festival, Czech Republic

Thanks to capitalistic intrigues money has acquired purely illusory value, which can be cloned and multiplied without the presence of any labor or real value (Exhibt A: the band of the thieves from Wall Street Stock Exchange as the most advanced criminals on earth). This “money business” is just a fraud established to trap normal folks. With their deceipt in mind, I decided to use some real value for entering their fraudulent bank business.

The festival (http://www.artalk.cz/2011/10/04/tz-festival-performance-malamut-2011/).took place in the city Ostrava, which was until recently a coal-mining city. After the “liberation by the Velvet revolution” the coal mining industry collapsed. Now it is the city with the biggest unemployment in the country. But at the same time it is a residency of the most wealthy man in Czech Republic, Bakala, who built his filthy wealth by “dealing” on the financial market with the apartments for the miners.

I chose coal as the real value money exchange for with which to deal in the financial market.  Today Coal is identified and used as a very popular hedge fund resource for our Wall Street thieves mentioned above.

I made a trip to a local bank house with the plan to open a business account using, as the first deposit, two buckets of coal.

To describe the experience from a performance I used two parts of a “real life” poem written in Czech language. The first part (a kind of premonition) was written before the performance and red on the steps of a banking house. The second one was written after the performance and was based on the real experience from the performance.

Here are short translation versions of the poems and two photos, which only survived after the police were called and all documentation material was confiscated (It reminded me of “the totalitarian system” under communism- the names of the systems changed, but the "Big Brother" control is the same)

Part I (before the performance)

I prepare two buckets of coal

Carrying the black gold I climb the marble stairs of the bank

I approach the bank officer and ask to open the account

Using the black gold, reminiscent of beauty as the deposit

The black hope

The black breath

The black trust

The black truth

The black eternity

The officer will call security and I will be asked to leave their white bank with my black bucket

I will grab the officer’s tie, and pulling his face toward me I will scream into his sleazy face

If you do not open my account I will push that black coal into your throat and it will catch on fire in your viscera

I am being kicked out on the street and the bucket with coal is flying after me.

Let us get millions of buckets!!



Part II (after the performance is experienced)

I grab two buckets of coal and climb the stairs

Walking with my coal I approach a very nice young female clerk

“What can I do for you?” she asks...

“I would like to open a business account in your bank and use it on the hedge fund market”

She is filling the application forms.

“How much will be your first deposit?”

“It will be a very valuable one”

And coal in my buckets is starting to smolder, dreaming about burning in the flames of a revolution while the human flesh is rendering down exposing the white bones.

“I mean how much money will you put on your account?”

“These two buckets of coal” and I am putting one bucket on the table

The clerk gets pale and runs for the bank director.

“Take your coal of the table,” she screams at me red-faced.

“You can not use coal as the deposit!”

“Why, why, it is a very valuable hedge fund?”

I am spouting the black soot into her sleazy face.

Both ladies are staring at me.

But they do not have ties so I can not grab them and yell into their faces.

Instead I leave.

The security guard stops me at the door.

“You will wait here for now! they yell at me.

And the police officers are coming.

“Where is the coal man?! -they ask

“We demand all documentation will be erased,” screams the red-faced bank director.

“Is there a bomb in your buckets”? one of the policeman asks me.

“Maybe. In eternity there is always a bomb hiding.

The police are leading me out of a bank.

My buckets of black coal are swinging in my hands.



Let us get millions of buckets!!!

2011, My Retrospective Show in the official "City Gallery of Brno" (capital of Moravia), Czech Republic

2011, My Retrospective Show in the offitial "City Gallery of Brno" (capital of Moravia), 
Czech Republic

Curated by Frantisek Kowalovski.
National Public Television shows about my retrospective:
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10318911545-kultura-s-dvojkou/211542156000110-kultura-s-dvojkou/obsah/159653-akcni-umelec-a-basnik-milan-kohout/
http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10099403120-kultura-v-regionech/311281381930514/

Demolition of the churches, Global Communication Festival of Performance Art, Czech Republic, Brno, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPqzm-QPlA0&t=3s

Global Communication Festival of Performance Art

House of Art in Brno, Czech Republic

6th and 10th of September 2011

This edition of the festival was dedicated to an idiom which represents the topic and main subject of the whole project in 2011: “Open space / Free space / Work”.

Bartosz Łukasiewicz // Warsaw/Poland General Director of Global Communication Festival

František Kowolowski // Brno/Czech Republic Coordinator of Global Communication Festival in Brno

Description of my performance:

We can consider religious buildings such as churches, synagogues, and mosques etc. as “privileged” city buildings. They act as though they are “open” to the public and yet they always only serve the purpose propagating their own totalitarian religious interests. They behave like a sleazy mix of public and private purposes. These buildings have been dictating the dynamic of urban spaces for centuries. I was interested in what would be the effect on the architectural landscape if all those buildings disappeared. That is, how would the urban dynamic be changed “spiritually” (in a non-religious meaning)? Would the disappearance of these buildings create a new “open and free” space in the city? The architectonic “web” which would be created by the absence of these buildings would create a new path of movement for the citizens of the city. This movement, which would not be dictated by spiritual demagogy, would be more associated with the free and natural way of movement and spiritual life of animals. After studying a map of the city of Brno, I realized that the religious buildings (in this case churches) are all situated like a big noose suffocating the center of the city (see attached chart). I suspect that religious organizations consciously create such a design in order to build a “spiritual concentration wall” around the inhabitants of the city. It is very interesting that these buildings have survived many different political systems and during various eras have constantly served as billboards for the sale of religions. Even communist governments did not have the courage to demolish them. They only changed the purpose for which the buildings were used (storage rooms, housing for elderly, schools, recreational centers etc). In order to initiate a public discussion about the possible demolition of these “cancerous” buildings, I step-by-step performed in front of all those “noose-like” churches surrounding the city center. I always hung a sign

“ Destined for demolition for the sake of liberating the public space”

on each church and using a megaphone I encouraged people to sign a petition asking the city officials to demolish these buildings. During the performances I encountered a few religious fanatics — one tore up my petition, another stepped on my megaphone, screaming that St. Mary will not be offended and another called the state police and was demanding that they arrest me. As a part of this performance I was also carrying a cage trap for pigeons with me. I wanted to trap them so that they would be replaced by humans as “free shit-ers” on religious buildings. No pigeon was willing to be trapped. It appears that it is only us “humans” who are willing to be trapped by religions.

Have a nice not "brainwashed" day
Milan

The state borders between Czech Republic and Germany, Private Performance, 2011

The borders between Czech Republic and Germany are created by a small brook at this location. Trying to defy the stupidity of all the borders created artificially by humans and not being respected by the nature I slept (dreamed) "between both countries". The sign which was there says : Attention. The state borders are created by the flow of the brook" I altered it to: …by the flow of the thoughts.

Anymous Performance Art Festival, Plzen, Czech Republic, May 2010

The church touches.

FILM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFj6Pdcb1gE

The scandal with molesting chidren in Catholic Church spread around the globe like an infection and thousands of catholic priests were put in front of a court.
I asked the girls from the art school in Plzen to participate in my guerrila performance in the gothic catholic cathedral in Plzen. I asked them to molest me while standing on the altar. The church attendant atack me and destroyed my alternated sign based on the verse from the bible and expelled the whole group from a cathedral.
Performance caused the media scandal and the local bishop filled several claims of criminal complains against me. As a result the local cultural council cancelled formally approved grant given to the festival organizer based on the illegal bishop political influence. The public divided into two camps. First being critical against my piece calling it desecration of a cathedral and the other one supporting my criticism of a church and organizing a public collection of money to reestablish the lost grant money.
I offered the bishop a meeting. But only under condition to hold the meeting in the pub over beer. Bishop who underestimated the number of my supporters (Czech Republic is statistically the most atheistic country in the world) agreed with the place of the meeting.  I spent with him two hours of the exchange of the opinions over several beers. The media people were observing us from the remote table.
First I introduced myself as a militant atheist the condition that was caused by my experience with the brainwashing function of religions in the USA.
He was very offended by my alternation of “ the saint bible text” in the performance. I argued that bible is only a fiction and pure nonsense not a scientific historical document and any artistic text alternation is completely fine. I told him that if he preaches the lines from this fiction and wants the churchgoers to believe them he is disseminating the lies. 
Bishop proceeded with the complain about by me supposing broken code of behavior in the church. I argued that church is for me a regular private building like any other pub in the city and I am not required to know the internal rules of behavior. Especially if that building is opened to the public.
Than I expressed my opinion that until the celibacy is removed from the Catholic Church the child molesting will automatically continue. Bishop strongly disagreed and argued that celibacy has no connection with molesting. I replied citation: “ There must be semen flowing from the ears of the young priests”.
Bishop told me that the pope established recently the policy of “zero tolerance” of child molesting in the church. I replied that I think it will continue since the child molesting by the priests has continued for the centuries. I cited the sentence told to me years ago by the Roma leader: “ Oh the priests have been always fucking our children”
Than I asked the bishop who seemed to be intelligent and educated if he believed in the nonsense of impregnation of Mary without intercourse and entering sperms into an egg. He watched around and almost secretly told me that he think that it was a scientifically proven case of very rare impregnation of a women which has been recorded by science. I started to laugh and strongly disagreed.
The performance cased the general discussion about child molesting in the Catholic Church and I hope turned many people with the temptation to join the church.

Video of the Performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFj6Pdcb1gE 

2010, Revolution against the puppet republic in hands of the rich pigs. Performance at Mobius gallery, Boston,USA

2010, Revolution against the puppet republic in hands of the rich pigs.
Performance at Mobius gallery, Boston,USA

Six people came to join the revolution and we spent the afternoon discussing the strategies.

2009, August,10th Open Performance Art Festival, Beijing, Curator

As a curator and participant of The 10th Open Performance Art Festival I did the following performance at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China (photo Wenrui)

In 1989 Chinese government violently suppressed pro democracy demonstration on Tiananmen Square killing almost 2000 people (some estimates are claiming up to 6000 people). Until today the government has been avoiding any public discussion about this "dirty spot" in recent Chinese history. Feeling the necessity of finally "cleaning blood" from the Tiananmen Square I brought a bucket with water and a mob (I had to pass through the metal detector but was allowed to walk on the square) and started to wash it. After about 7 minutes the Chinese police stopped my "consciousness cleaning effort".

10th Open Festival Catalogue




Since I did not succeeded to wash all blood I went on The Great Chines Wall and was trying to block the public conformism.

July 2009, Art Residency Palestine /Israel

Art Residency, West Bank-the occupied Palestinian Territories,  THROWING PEAS AT THE WALL

After Al Jazeera published the article about my Prague retrospective show I was offered by Palestinian organization "Join Advocacy Initiative" to join a 10 days long residential art program in Beit Sahour in West Bank of the occupied Palestinian territories. Here are some samples of the performance pieces I did there next to a "New Berlin Wall" (when finished it should be 750 Km long and 10 meters tall) built by Israeli government to segregate occupied Palestinian territories from Israel. Al Jazeera link: http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5F21F0AF-DC52-4B5C-8998-5AEE218958EC.htm

SECOND PERFORMANCE NEXT A WALL IN ISRAEL:



I walked over that humiliating apartheid wall with the intention to flip it over.



PERFORMANCE NEXT TO A WALL IN ISRAEL:

I personally participated on the whole process to get through one of the "check points" in the wall. It is experienced every morning by the Palestinians working inside Israel. They wake up every night at two in the morning so that they can get around three at the check point. Than it takes them approximately three hours to get through the three stages of "security check ups" (metal detectors, body searches etc). During this process they are exposed to different types of humiliating harassments. There are no bathrooms or chairs. When they get on the other side of the wall they are sometimes napping on the sidewalks waiting for the transportation to their day- jobs.

May, 2009, My Retrospective Show at Prague, Czech Republic

RETROSPECTIVE SHOW AT GALLERY NoD-ROXY,PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

FILM:
INTERVIEW AT THE SHOW

Gallery NoD (ROXY) in Prague, Czech Republic offered a retrospective show of my artwork. It covered my works from early eighties till now. In three halls there were on the displays my performance situations accompanied by three video projections with the excerpts of my films and performances.
INTERVIEW AT THE SHOW
NoD ROXY 

October, 2008, "Asiotopia" Festival, Thailand

PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL "ASIOTOPIA", BANGKOK's SLUM, THAILAND

As everybody knows, Bangkok is a famous destination for the sex tourists who travel there from the west, and mainly the United States. Thanks to the power of the dollar they have long "enjoyed" very cheap and very young prostitutes who are recruited from the slums and villages of Thailand. Now that our glorious American capitalists have crashed, the crisis has come to haunt us at home. I decided to sell myself as the prostitute in one of Bangkok's largest slums. My purpose was help to save our economy. Nobody hired me.
Performance Art Festival "Asiotopia"



OCTOBER.2008 PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL, "ASIOTOPIA" ,BANGKOK, THAILAND (photo Wenrui)

Over the last six months, anti-government rebels, using the tactics of "direct democracy" (resonating with anarchism), have occupied the prime minister's official government headquarters. Several thousand rebels (including children) built a tent city around the building, forcing the Prime Minister to open an emergency office at the Bangkok International airport. From time to time a shell, being shot by pro government forces, landed directly over the protesters; killing some of them and injure scores. Shortly before I came to perform there a shell landed on the main tent and killed one of the rebels- on the picture you can see the hole in the tent-canopy where the shell went through. I sat down on the spot where the shell landed and I wrote the "automated" poem reflecting upon the atmosphere of this violated space. A the same spot where the shell exploded, I dug a hole and buried the poem. After I left the rebel camp I learned that another shell landed on the very same tent killing another rebel and injuring several others.
Performance Art Festival" Asiotopia"

August, 2008, Performance at the location of the future US Army base in the Czech Republic

AUGUST 21. 2008 , "LONG LIVE BARBED WIRE, THE SYMBOL OF GROWING FREEDOM IN THE WORLD " PERFORMANCE,
BRDY MOUNTAINS, THE PLACE OF THE AMERICAN ARMY BASE IN CZECH REPUBLIC,

As an "enlightened Czech new wave venture capitalist," I decided to support the idea of the presence of the new foreign troops on the Czech territory (AUGUST.21 is the fortieth anniversary of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet Union in 1968 - Russian troops then stayed till 1989. Now American troops will be moving in - isn't it wonderful?). Therefore I illegally entered the area where the new American military base (radar) will be built (near Misov in the Brdy mountains, about three miles inside the area forbidden to the public), with the plan to make the barbed wire surrounding the building site even stronger. I brought my own barbed wire to support the idea of more army bases and wars around the world. Finally I got to the boundary where the American razor wire was laid down (it can easily cut your veins if you fall over it - in some countries this kind of barbed wire is banned by law). Before the edge of the actual wire, I noticed an inductive motion detection sensor system (small wire on the tiny sticks), which is supposed to send an impulse to the guards if somebody breaches the area. I was sure that the guards would not be such "enlightened supporters of barbed wire and army bases" as I was, and maybe they would prevent me from voluntarily improving their barbed wire. So I knew I had just a few minutes for the action. So I crossed the motion detection sensors and started to apply my own barbed wire. After few minutes I heard a military police car coming my way, so I hid in the nearby grass . They stopped exactly at the place where I had broken in (my suspicions were right about the electronic detection system) and they started to search for me. But since they did not bring a dog, they gave up after a while and left. Then I slowly and quietly disappeared, because I had succeeded in supporting another "freedom" - barbed wire.

(08-26) 11:53 PDT MOSCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is warning his country may respond to a U.S. missile shield in Europe through military means. Medvedev says that the deployment of an anti-missile system close to Russian borders "will of course create additional tensions."

July, 2008, "ANYMOUS" Performance Festival, Cooking Money Soup

07.2008, "ANYMOUS" PERFORMANCE ART FESTIVAL, PLZEN , CZECH REPUBLIC,

FILM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smK64e-kIHQ

Anymous web with video

The proponents of the capitalistic economy teach that hunger will disappear from the world if the local economies will generate enough money. But the United Nation statistic say that the number of hungry people in the world is still growing even while the total amount of the world money is multiplying. I was trying to solve this paradox by cooking a soup from some very "nutritious" money in front of the currency rates displayed in the window of the local bank. While the soup was boiling I was encouraging obviously well to do westerners to throw some money into the pot so that the soup would be even more delicious and more nutritious. At the same time I was offering a broth to the local homeless people ( who declined for the lack of the "noodles" in the broth.) The cooking place was situated in between a Christian Church and a Bank. During my statements I was stressing that our humanistic western civilization is built on the two pillars- church and bank- and that this combination is the glory of our perfect western civilization. With the ladle I pointed many times to the currency exchange rates displayed behind my back. The bank director called the Police several times and finally the special crime unit forced me to stop cooking soup for the poor.
Anymous web with video

2007, ARTRAGES

MOBIUS ARTRAGES, BOSTON, USA, ASSKISSING SERVICE

I kissed asses of about fifty eligible people during this performance.

November 09, 2007 - Nooses on Sale

I HAD TO STAND FOUR MONTH LONG CRIMINAL TRIAL AT THE BOSTON COURTHOUSE FOR THE FOLLOWING PERFORMANCE :

NOV.09.2007 ," NOOSES ON SALE", IN FRONT OF "BANK OF AMERICA"(Opposing the balcony where The Declaration of Independence was red in 1776),BOSTON, USA, "TREMOR" FESTIVAL

FIRST PART OF THE PERFORMANCE: In my Performance Art pieces I have been always reacting to the sociopolitical environment at the moment of the given piece. In the several days preceding my piece, the Dow Jones average had significantly dropped on the NY stock exchange, which could be seen as a symptom of a coming crisis of capitalistic economy. This loss was initiated by the faulty and extremely greedy and criminal American mortgage bank industry. The mortgage lenders were deliberately targeting the low-income people with high-cost loans and then making their money off of the loans being sold over and over again in Wall Street . But those who are going to suffer the worst consequences are those millions of people who are going to lose their homes to foreclosures. Standing in front of the entrance of the main branch of "Bank of America" in Boston, I metaphorically offered a sale on nooses. This sale reflected metaphorically the cynicism of the rich people at the banking market, who were willing to sell everything for the sake of profit, including human life and suicide. This means they were willing to "sell" even a "noose" as a part of a mortgage package and still pretend to be just " innocent businessmen". In their minds was something like this: " We can even make some additional profit and who cares if they commit a suicide after losing a home". As a practical illustration of the contemporary US "police state" it took only 3 minutes for the first policeman to appear on the scene and start to interrogate me. He was followed by another two policeman in a patrol car two minutes later.I explained to them that I was doing a performance art piece and that I was actually offering nooses for free. Than among other I was asked what country I was from and what language I spoke. I replied that I was from The USA and ,as they could hear,I spoke English. I followed by asking them if they were "racially profiling" me. The policeman answered "YES". The nooses and a sign were confiscated as material evidence and I was told I would receive a court summons for breaking a law for not having a peddler's license. Witness of the piece was overheard on his cell phone saying:" You should come down here and see this! There is a guy selling nooses. I think he wants to kill Americans?" The whole performance lasted about six minutes.
Link to Tremor festival

SECOND PART OF THE PERFORMANCE (TWO MONTHS LATER): I received a notice requiring me to attend a hearing related to an application for criminal complaint. It was scheduled on January 16,2008. At that time, I reported to the criminal clerk's office at the courthouse in Boston accompanied by my lawyer Jeffrey J. Pyle. The criminal clerk was to decide whether or not I would be sued for the criminal offense of being a "Transient Vendor, Unlicensed c101:008. " First the criminal clerk listened to a police officer. He stated that upon his arrival "he noticed that I had a cardboard sign which stated, "Nooses on Sale" and also 15 1/2" diameter by approximately 10" length of rope formed in the fashion consistent with a noose". He also stated that he also "observed a large crowd of pedestrians gathering around the suspect (me) attempting to read the sign. My lawyer began to dispute the charges by building the case (proof) that I was not selling anything and that the whole piece was a performance piece as part of an art festival. The police officer was then presented with the detailed photo documentation of the whole piece. It seemed to surprise him. Than my lawyer began to establish proof that I was an artist teaching performance art at different colleges, (part of his legal strategy to dispute the charges brought against me). But the clerk stopped arrogantly my lawyer and refused to dismiss the case and announced that the court hearing for the criminal offense would take place on Feb 6th. When I was leaving the court house I felt like I was having deja vu. It reminded me of the times I was politically persecuted under the totalitarian system in my ex-country, Czechoslovakia from which I was eventually expelled.

THIRD PART OF THE PERFORMANCE: The second court hearing occurred, and I pleaded not guilty. My lawyer Jeffrey J. Pyle asked the district attorney to dismiss this absurd case but he categorically refused. Than my lawyer explained to the judge that I was a famous and internationally recognized performance artist from the former Czechoslovakia, that in fact I had actually been expelled from said country for said activity, and that in this instance I was criticizing the selling of unsafe mortgages and greedy banking industry. My lawyer did an excellent job of explaining my position and my performance, and the judge listened carefully. Then the judge asked for arranging a pretrial conference hearing which will be on Feb 22nd.

FOURTH PART OF THE PERFORMANCE: The third hearing occurred and the motion to dismiss the case was filed. This excellently executed public document ( anybody interested has the right to access this document) was prepared by my lawyer Jeffrey J. Pyle. It contains all the information about the defense of this case. Now it is up to the court to decide about dismissal of the case till the trial which will occur on March 7.

FIFTH PART OF THE PERFORMANCE: Today (MARCH 7, 2008) finally the new judge ( who was not involved in the previous decisions) decided to dismiss the ridiculous, stupid and absurd case which was filled by Commonwealth of Massachusetts against me for "selling nooses" in front of Bank of America. It is obvious that "Commonwealth of Massachusetts" realized that it could not push the charges any more and therefore replaced the prosecutor (District Attorney) who himself asked for the dismissal of the case. The dismissal ended the growing absurdity of being a criminal defendant for several month for just exercising my right to freedom of speech. It is especially ridiculous since instead of prosecuting those greedy criminals from the banks for causing the suffering for millions of people who are loosing their homes the system was trying to punish me for my critical commentary. I wanted to wake up people to the fact that if we continue to support the economic system that causes this kind of suffering for the people we are literally putting a noose around all of our heads. I grew up in a totalitarian system which misused the law to prosecute dissidents for their critical expression. For the government to use bogus charges to punish artists for their expression is a step toward that kind of system. Having performed in many countries around the world (include totalitarian systems like China and Cuba) I have never experienced so restrictive and police monitored environment for the street Performance Art like in the USA (I know everybody is a suspected "terrorist" or "criminal" now ) I would like to thank my lawyer Jeffrey J. Pyle for his excellent work on this case and in the field of the First Amendment cases. Thanks also to many supporters who have been very helpful during this performance (some of them attended even the court hearings). Long lIve freedom of speech- one of the last hopes we have.

SIXTH PART OF THE PERFORMANCE-ENCORE: I am asking Commonwealth of Massachusetts to return my nooses and a sign which was confiscated by the police officers during my performance.

SEVENTH AND LAST PART OF THE PERFORMANCE My wonderful lawyer Jeffrey J. Pyle on 05.17.08 filled the "Motion to Return Physical Evidence to Defendant" and I picked up several days ago my beloved nooses and a sign at the police warehouse. With greeting " Let us fight the big brother"

Here are some links dealing with this performance:
http://www.princelobel.com/news/court-dismisses-case-against-prince-lobel-client-milan-kohout/
Boston Phoenix
The Phoenix commentary after the charge was dismissed
Boston Herald
Boston Now
NPR
Chris King Blog
Chris King Blog/last hearing
Art in Community Blog
Weekly Dig
Weekly Dig
Mass Rights Blog
Britske Listy
Boston Now:
BAAM, Boston Anarchist Magazine


Police is confiscating nooses and a sign as "the material evidence"


During one of the hearings


... minutes after the dismissal of the case in front of Edward W. Brooke Courthouse in Boston with my lawyer and the supporters who attended the last hearing


minutes after my nooses were returned to me

August, 2007, " Golden Gate" Human Rights Illusion

AUG, 2007, GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, SAN FRANCISKO, USA

I understand that this bridge is a "gate" or an "entrance" to the USA. I used the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights accepted by the United Nations in 1948. It sets forth the basic human rights standards which we are starting to ignore in our "fight against terrorism". So I tore this text into pieces and let it be taken by the wind through this "gate".


Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisko

June, 2007, Meat Throwing Christian Hypocrisy, Catholic Cathedral, Czech Republic

FILM:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdzuvBPouuA

KROMERIZ, CZECH REPUBLIC, CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, FORFEST FESTIVAL, MEAT

Since Forfest festival was mostly a music festival I developed a "music composition" ... I was working with the following ideas: 1/ -the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in supporting the war in Iraq and its own teaching of peace (especially in the cradle of contemporary Catholicism Poland which, after Great Britain, sent the largest number of soldiers to Iraq as a part of "The Coalition of the Willing"). 2/- from my collection of reports from the Iraq war, I was most moved by the recollections of eye witnesses about the chunks of human flesh falling from heaven after bomb explosions. They especially remembered the horrible and indescribable sound of the those pieces of meat hitting the ground. So I wanted to reproduce this sound in the local Catholic cathedral in Kromeriz - Christianity is obsessed with human flesh: the image of Christ on the cross, nails in the palms, open rib cage etc. But within the building of the church, everything is sanitized by its representation as art objects made from wood and stone. So I bought a large piece of raw meat, and for about half an hour I was throwing it up into the air in the middle of the cathedral and letting it fall on the stone floor. After the sound of each impact of flesh, and the subsequent echo, a colleague Lewis threw the coin which filled the church nave with a tinkling sound. From time to time occasional visitors were screaming at me about defiling the church, but than they always left. At the end a nun came and after the initial shock she started scream at me: "Evil! Leave the home of Jesus Christ!" So I left and returned with a bucket and a mop and cleaned the church floor. Meanwhile the nun was still screaming at me and I was replying: "Do not worry, your church will be even cleaner than before". The local bishop is considering to consecrate the church after my performance
Forfest Festival

May, 2007, Gas Canisters at the Altars of Church, Synagogue and Mosque

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxo58cpOMYs

PLZEN, CZECH REPUBLIC; ANYMOUS FESTIVAL; THANK YOU IRAQ -- WE WILL NEVER FORGET

I was encouraging people to sign a petition for the erection of a monument reading "Thank you Iraq, we will never forget your support for our perfect western civilization." The performance took place in front of a recently built monument commemorating the liberation of Plzen by the American army in 1945. On it is written "Thank you America, we will never forget" (in Communist times, what was written on the statues was: "Thank you Soviet Union, we will never forget." The ass-kissing rhetoric stays, the empires have changed). There is also a relationship to the double standard of the so-called "liberation" of Iraq leading to the incredible massacres of Iraqis. I used three gold-painted gas canisters situated in the form of a cross and relating to Christianity, Judaism and the Spirit of Gas. After the part of the performance that took place in the street, I placed one canister on the altar in the local synagogue and the second one on the altar of the local catholic cathedral and left them there. The third one I plan to deliver to the only mosque in the Czech Republic in the city of Brno. Surprisingly, nobody called the anti-bomb squad to clear these canisters from their locations. I then personally delivered the petition to the mayor of the City of Plzen.


Altar with the golden painted gas canister in the catholic cathedral in Plzen


and another canister in the local synagogue