Een wat lange kerstvakantie in Tsjechoslowakije, maar wel economisch : over een drietal lezingen van de Nederlandse avant-gardistische vormgever, fotograaf en filmmaker Paul Schuitema in Brno en Praag begin januari 1936

The following article deals with a small episode in the manifold relations between the historical avant-garde in the Netherlands and Czechia and Slovakia in the first half of the twentieth century. Early December 1935, the Dutch avant-garde designer, photographer and filmmaker Paul Schuitema decided that the time was ripe for a holiday trip to Czechoslovakia during his Christmas break as teacher at the art academy in The Hague. His destination was Brno, where the designer and just starting architect František Kalivoda lived. Kalivoda had visited Holland in early 1934 touring Dutch cinemas and film clubs with avant-garde films from Czechoslovakia. Kalivoda and Schuitema had become acquainted during Kalivoda’s stay in the Netherlands and most likely invited Schuitema to come over to Brno to show Dutch experimental films in the Moldavian capital in return. Since Schuitema had little money, he proposed to give lectures for honoraria. Whereas two lectures were organized by Kalivoda in Brno in advance, only last-minute a third lecture was arranged in Prague to finance Schuitema's stay over there. As a tourist visiting Czechia for the first time, Schuitema also wanted to see Prague. However, as he found out, the hotel arranged for him was far beyond his budget. Solace offered his final Czech lecture in the Prague Museum for applied art, arranged by his Prague avant-garde contacts and the Scandinavian-Dutch Institute, an organization related to the Czechoslovakian Foreign Office to promote cultural relations between Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands.