On the happening, the black villain chased the naked fairy Kyselka

photo: Lukáš Podhorský

Prague - The naked and defenseless fairy Kyselka pleaded today in front of the Prague headquarters of Karlovarské minerální vody (KMV) with the black villain Mattoni to save her from extinction. With a happening at Mariánské náměstí, students aimed to draw attention to the devastated historic spa Kyselka in Karlovy Vary, partially owned by KMV. The student event also launched an online video campaign, in which famous personalities are urging the public to send an email to the company saying "Please, fix Kyselka!".
    "We call on, we ask, we urge Karlovarské minerální vody to repair the Kyselka spa. It is their legal obligation, which they have not fulfilled for 20 years," said Matěj Chytil, a law student and one of the student initiators, to ČTK. The students, with banners and slogans like "Fix Kyselka", do not consider themselves typical activists. "We approached Mattoni before launching the campaign; we introduced them to the basic formats of actions, and we will show them each subsequent round in advance, because our interest is not to attack the company or ruin their business. Our interest is to urge them to repair what they need to repair, and that is not an additional obligation," Chytil stated.
    The CEO of KMV, Alessandro Pasquale, appeared at the event and engaged in lively discussions with the students. "So far, there is only one company that claims to do something for Kyselka, and that is KMV. No one else will do it," Pasquale told ČTK. He said he would be happy to cooperate with the students if they have the same goal - the repair of Kyselka. KMV has already allocated 60 million crowns this year for the repairs of two buildings in Kyselka. A request to begin reconstruction has been sitting at the National Heritage Institute in Loket since November, Pasquale noted.
    The students plan to continue their actions in the coming days. They want to install a banner reading "Fix Kyselka" on one of the giant billboards featuring a black eagle, the symbol of Mattoni, along the road from Prague to Mladá Boleslav later today.
    In the internet video spots, musician David Koller, gymnast Věra Čáslavská, architect David Vávra, or artist David Černý will invite the public to take an interest in the Kyselka problem. There is also a plan for a fashion photo series shot directly in the spaces of the devastated spa buildings. An unflattering advertisement for beverages produced by KMV is also expected to appear.
    For the insufficient care of some historic objects in Kyselka, KMV was fined 1.8 million crowns by the Karlovy Vary magistrate at the beginning of the year; the regional office confirmed it, and the company intends to defend itself in court.
    KMV claims that it owns only small parts of the devastated buildings and bears no responsibility for the others, arguing that its business had no impact on the state of the buildings. However, activists argue that KMV and companies with which it is personally connected own practically all the buildings and lands in the former spa and are thus responsible for their devastation.
    Recent photographic campaigns on Prague trams have highlighted the dilapidated heritage sites in Western Bohemia's Kyselka. The Association of Associations for the Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage of the Czech Republic (ASKORD) covered three trams with images of the devastated Löschner Palace with the caption "Mineral water Mattoni is extracted here". However, the city court in Prague ruled after KMV's objection that they cannot be on the trams. They could supposedly give the impression that the mineral water is extracted directly at this location, which is not true.