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Martin&David Koutecký

The brothers Martin (b. Prague, 1982) and David (b. Prague, 1975) Koutecký inherited their almost ritualistic love of objects from their father Miloš, the legendary props manager at the National Theatre Prague. In their roles as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Peerless Cooperative of the Holy Nurture (Jedinečné Svatopěstitelské Družstvo, JSD), they founded the Universal Psychiatric Temple (Univerzální psychiatrický chrám, UPSYCH 316a) as a large-scale social sculpture. It is a place entirely dedicated to community life and the worship of Saint Šmelc (junk, scrap). Its purpose is to engage in the development and cultivation of art therapy and thus, by virtue of imagination, to redeem the individual. The aim of the Universal Psychiatric Temple is to create a perfect temple – including the right of asylum and the granting of sanctuary to people with special talents. “Normal” society puts them in psychiatric clinics. There, efforts are made to deprive them of their talents and gifts by means of medication, because “normal” society sees both as a problem. "We, on the other hand, create an environment for these people that is stimulating, friendly and provides a calm working environment." The temple is located on the outskirts of Ralsko, a small town in the north-east of the Czech Republic, in the Gothic fortress of Kuřívody (German name: Hühnerwasser), which dates from the fourteenth century. Having been occupied by the Soviet army since 1968, the fortress was finally acquired by the donors in 1997. When the listed building was taken over from its former user, the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, it was in a state of extreme dilapidation, even devastation. The new owners saved the building from collapse and used it as a warehouse for storing the swelling flood of objects being transported there, most of which had been found or donated – this was the very junk or scrap they call  Šmelc [pronounced shmelts]. Šmelc is descended from Forefather Šmelc. Because during the Great Flood, there was not just one ark. There was a small ark, that of Noah, and in addition to that there was a much, much bigger one - the ark of Forefather Šmelc. The Lord had decided to destroy the Earth because humans were disdainful of everything he had entrusted to them and simply threw things away. Forefather Šmelc saved all the condemned and discarded items and built a huge ship out of them. He filled it with everything he could find, for he was the Lord's first chosen one to save the world. The Peerless Cooperative of the Holy Nurture, which runs the Universal Psychiatric Temple, was founded on 12 January 2001 to save Mr Miláček – the Young Saint, the Greatest Artist and the Greatest Love – from the world, and the world from Mr Miláček. All society’s cultures and rituals have arisen naturally, for there is not a single object that cannot be used, no object that cannot be elevated to the status of an altar, or of a ritual object. The organism of the JSD and UPSYCH 316a is mainly formed by a network of friendship relations. This is based on the energies of people who, directly or indirectly, are involved in or familiar with the practices and histories of society. Without them, the organism loses its magical aura. Everything here is for the “cultivation and development of the sacred in general”, not for the production of art and the sale of artefacts.

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