The exhibition Biennial of Dissent '77 is an offspring of the festival held in Venice thirty years ago, dedicated to the cultural dissidence in Eastern Europe – conferences and seminars plus a number of concerts, exhibitions and film sessions were held to determine the position of dissidents in the Eastern Block countries in those days. The informal socialist culture was attempted to be mapped with archival ardency; it was "interpreted" via the West, via the information, people and works that had reached the West, into a "language" understandable in the West. 1977 was the year when the topics of dissidence and human rights were in zenith on the East-West axis due to the Helsinki treaties; at the same time the approach to these problems was politically extremely predetermined from both sides. From the very first days, the Venice Culture Festival became a problem for both – foreign and domestic policy force-fields. Today, from the aspect of understanding the topic, those tensions are as fascinating as the festival itself.

Photo: Stanislav Stepaško