Prague, June 21 (CTK) – Czech poet and artist Eugen Brikcius, who moved from Prague to Vienna for political reasons in 1980, received the Austrian cross of honour for science and art, first class, in Prague today, his wife Zuzana Brikcius told CTK.
The high Austrian decoration was bestowed on him by Austrian Ambassador Alexander Grubmayr.
Writer and former Czech president Vaclav Havel received the Austrian decoration in 2005.
In the 1960s, Brikcius was one of the major figures of the Czech cultural scene, with his performing art. In the 1970s, he was sent to prison for “the defamation of the Soviet Union” and he signed the Charter 77 human rights manifesto, around which the country’s political opposition movement was forming. In 1980, he was forced to leave the country and he settled in Vienna. After the fall of the communist regime, he has been living alternately in Prague and Vienna.
Brikcius, 74, wrote poems in Czech and Latin, and his art was influenced by Dada. In 2015, he won the Jaroslav Seifert Award for Czech literature.
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