Open letter to the co-founder of the reSITE conference, Martin Barry
Good day Martin,
To simplify our communication, I choose the form of an open letter and the language Czech.
Nearly seven years ago, the two of us, along with Milota Sidorová, founded the non-profit organization reSITE with the goal of organizing a conference in Prague, focusing on public space.
During its first year, my colleagues and I from the then-emerging ARCHIP school helped bring this event to life. For its successful apolitical and non-profit functioning, we were happy to provide not only our contacts but also our knowledge of the local professional environment. A significant portion of the administrative and legal formalities, including the establishment of the civic association, was handled by the school.
Together we founded a conference and a festival that would open the local environment even more to the world and enable a shift in the fields of urban planning, landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture based on good foreign examples. All this was on the basis of volunteerism, expertise, and non-profit nature. Unfortunately, over the past few years, it has become clear that our visions for the direction of the conference are very different.
This is illustrated by the seemingly minor detail that on all available printed materials, you present yourself as the sole founder of reSITE. This naturally does not please me or Milota, who left the organization in 2015 on the condition that her role as a co-founder would always be mentioned.
What displeases me even more and I cannot tolerate is the patronage of the former Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic (additionally mentioned first in the materials before the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic) and his main partnership with the conference. The current reSITE organization, which should primarily have a non-profit and, in my opinion, also apolitical character, should definitely not provide space for politicians for their own political presentation, even if it appears professional.
Last week, on the second day of the conference, during the most attended part of the program, when the auditorium was full of attendees interested in the lecture by the excellent architect Caroline Bos from the Dutch UN studio, you chose to give the floor to the aforementioned politician in this sensitive pre-election period, who was not even mentioned in the program.
I personally regret that the conference has taken this direction, abandoned the original mission of the non-profit organization, and fundamentally become a commercial affair.
For these reasons, I have decided to write this open letter and publicly distance myself from the conference in this form. As a co-founder of the non-profit organization reSITE (now the association reSITE), I ask you not to use this name anymore, and I recommend that you establish your own commercially oriented company, with an open possibility for the entry of political entities and ideally with an appropriate profit.
Sincerely,
Regina Loukotová, rector of ARCHIP
In Prague, June 30, 2017
To simplify our communication, I choose the form of an open letter and the language Czech.
Nearly seven years ago, the two of us, along with Milota Sidorová, founded the non-profit organization reSITE with the goal of organizing a conference in Prague, focusing on public space.
During its first year, my colleagues and I from the then-emerging ARCHIP school helped bring this event to life. For its successful apolitical and non-profit functioning, we were happy to provide not only our contacts but also our knowledge of the local professional environment. A significant portion of the administrative and legal formalities, including the establishment of the civic association, was handled by the school.
Together we founded a conference and a festival that would open the local environment even more to the world and enable a shift in the fields of urban planning, landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture based on good foreign examples. All this was on the basis of volunteerism, expertise, and non-profit nature. Unfortunately, over the past few years, it has become clear that our visions for the direction of the conference are very different.
This is illustrated by the seemingly minor detail that on all available printed materials, you present yourself as the sole founder of reSITE. This naturally does not please me or Milota, who left the organization in 2015 on the condition that her role as a co-founder would always be mentioned.
What displeases me even more and I cannot tolerate is the patronage of the former Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic (additionally mentioned first in the materials before the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic) and his main partnership with the conference. The current reSITE organization, which should primarily have a non-profit and, in my opinion, also apolitical character, should definitely not provide space for politicians for their own political presentation, even if it appears professional.
Last week, on the second day of the conference, during the most attended part of the program, when the auditorium was full of attendees interested in the lecture by the excellent architect Caroline Bos from the Dutch UN studio, you chose to give the floor to the aforementioned politician in this sensitive pre-election period, who was not even mentioned in the program.
I personally regret that the conference has taken this direction, abandoned the original mission of the non-profit organization, and fundamentally become a commercial affair.
For these reasons, I have decided to write this open letter and publicly distance myself from the conference in this form. As a co-founder of the non-profit organization reSITE (now the association reSITE), I ask you not to use this name anymore, and I recommend that you establish your own commercially oriented company, with an open possibility for the entry of political entities and ideally with an appropriate profit.
Sincerely,
Regina Loukotová, rector of ARCHIP
In Prague, June 30, 2017
The English translation is powered by AI tool. Switch to Czech to view the original text source.
14 comments
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Subject
Author
Date
re reSITE
Tomáš Vích
03.07.17 10:37
Napucovaná paráda
Zdeněk meisner
04.07.17 04:52
Pět faktů v reakci na otevřený dopis Martinu Barrymu
reSITE
06.07.17 06:32
Obsah reSITE je zveřeňován online
reSITE
07.07.17 10:02
....
Daniel John
07.07.17 09:12
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