The founding document of Charter 77 was signed by a total of 241 "signatories" at the time of its creation, including poets, philosophers, translators, representatives of Czech underground culture, workers, former politicians and personalities of all denominations and political directions. The fearless attitude of representatives of various schools of thought and the clear rejection of the ruling communist regime triggered a wave of solidarity and support in democratic Western Europe and the United States. An invaluable role was undoubtedly played by the well-known personalities and authors of the Declaration, such as the first spokesman of Charter 77, humanist philosopher Jan Patočka, playwright and writer Václav Havel and former politician Jiří Hájek. The communist regime raged and undertook a ruthless campaign against the signatories in every respect. In March 1977, the most prominent thinker - Professor Jan Patočka - became the victim of a brutal interrogation.

On January 28, 1977, Bruno Kreisky, leader of the Social Democratic Party and Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, offered political asylum in Austria to all signatories of Charter 77. This generous offer was perceived as the last glimmer of hope for the Chartists persecuted by the regime, whose numbers were slowly but steadily increasing (according to the seventh document of Charter 77 in March 1977, there were already close to 600 signatures). By November 1989, the number of signatures from all over Czechoslovakia had risen to 1,883.

About 200 dissidents emigrated to Austria, often accompanied by their families; most of them stayed permanently. Many artists also came to the country. One of them was Pavel Landovský, one of the most important Czech actors, who complemented the ensemble of the Vienna Burgtheater. The well-known playwright and writer Pavel Kohout was followed by his son, the painter Ondřej Kohout, and his wife Eva Vonešová, also a painter. Poet, philosopher and visual artist Eugen Brikcius arrived in early January 1980. The painter and future member of the House of Artists Otakar Slavík, and the photographer Abé Libánský also settled in Vienna with their families. The painter Zbyněk Benýšek founded the exile cultural magazine Paternoster and returned to Prague after the Velvet Revolution. Other well-known dissidents included singer and guitarist Dáša Vokatá, guitarist Zdeněk Vokatý nicknamed Londýn (London), and musician of the cult underground band DG 307 Jan Kindl and his family. Actress Nika Brettschneiderová, together with her husband Ludvík Kavín, founded the Brett Theater.          

                                                                                                                                                                                         
Three artists were chosen as pars pro toto for the current exhibition. All of them, as well as the curator of the exhibition, were awarded the Memorial Decree and the Badge of Resistance and Protest against Communism by the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic. Thus they became veterans of the Third Resistance.   
Ondřej Kohout became known for his pointed figurative paintings, which comment on our existence with exaggeration and often scathing irony. In Vienna he became a member of the Künstlerhaus.
The work of Eva Vones (Vonešová) is characterized by a strong sense of poetry; they are poems in pictorial form. The exhibits selected for the exhibition document the various stages of the artist's life, expressing wishes, dreams and reality in her paintings.

The poet and philosopher Eugen Brikcius made his mark on the history of Czech art in the 1960s as the originator of philosophical happenings and land art, before events of this kind entered the art historical terminology. Long before 1977, he was criminalized by the communist regime for his artistic expression and attitude. Two artistic references to EB as a poet and philosopher were selected for the exhibition, in addition to the already iconic Still Life I series, Kampa 1967.

Charter 77 grew from a petition and a human rights protest into a symbol of political opposition, even if it was not formally so. Exile and homeland worked closely together and the diversity of intellectual backgrounds was united by the desire for existential freedom in all its shades. The courage to stand up for one's own point of view, to not be afraid of being branded by the majority, and to maintain independent, critical thinking is the legacy for the present and the future of Europe.

During the preparations for our exhibition, the Russian army attacked the sovereign state of Ukraine. In the case of Charter 77, human rights were at stake; in Ukraine, human lives are at stake. The tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes is unfathomable. I end with an excerpt from the poem The Legacy (Testament, When I Die) by the persecuted Ukrainian poet and visual artist Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), translated into Czech by the exiled poet Jan Vladislav.