Jiří Šimáček: Protector of the highest values
– Czechia
Born in 1967 in Brno, Jiří Šimáček studied aesthetics and art history at Masaryk University. He has pursued photography and fine arts and worked with Czech Television as a dramaturgist and screenwriter. In 2000, he and Zdeněk Plachý founded Střežený Parnass, a “free artistic group dedicated to the protection of the highest cultural values.” He co-authored (also with Zdeněk Plachý) theatrical plays such as Nepohodlný Indián (An Inconvenient Indian), Árie k nezaplacení (A Priceless Aria) and Last Christmas. He is the author of the novels Snaživky (Try-Hards, 2009), Charakter (Character, 2012), Malá noční žranice (A Little Night Blowout, 2014) and Prvotřídní hajzl (A First-Rate Bastard, 2019). He wrote the script for the comic book Článek II. (Article II, 2019), which commemorates chaplain Vladimír Petřek, a forgotten hero of Prague’s resistance to the rule of the wartime Nazi Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich.