Michal Kaščák returns the Tatra banka Foundation Art Award
He won the Award in 2012 in the Music category for the dramaturgy of Pohoda Festival. Michal Kaščák returns the Tatra banka Foundation Art Award to express his disagreement with the activities of the bank's majority owner in Russia.
30. March 2023
"I am returning the Tatra banka Foundation Art Award, which I received in 2012 in the Music category for Pohoda Festival dramaturgy.
I am returning the award due to the recently published information, according to which the majority owner of Tatra banka, a.s. – the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank International – continues to operate in the banking market of the Russian Federation, despite the ongoing military invasion of the Russian army into the territory of Ukraine.
Pohoda Festival actively supports our Ukrainian neighbours in their struggle for freedom against the aggressive war waged by the Russian Federation. I have no doubt whose side I should be on in this senseless and unprovoked aggression by the Russian army. Festival dramaturgy has always reacted to social events, both in Slovakia and abroad, and that is why I must react now, too, when thousands of innocent people are being killed by a military aggressor in Ukraine.
As a dramaturge, the values of freedom, humanism and democracy are close to my heart, not only declaratively, but also through concrete actions, which include the design of the festival programme. I cannot and will not be the recipient of an award from a bank owned by someone whose business activities indirectly help the Russian Federation to wage and fund an aggressive war against Ukrainian citizens.
I am sending the award – a bronze statue of the Muse – today, 30 March 2023, to the Tatra Bank Foundation, Hodžovo námestie 3, 811 06 Bratislava.
The award came with a financial reward. Please send me to my email address michal@pohodafestival.sk the account number to which I will refund the full amount. Should I not receive the account number by 14 April 2023, the entire amount shall be donated to the Music Saves Ukraine initiative, which aims to alleviate the effects of the war in Ukraine."
Michal Kaščák
CEO and dramaturge of Pohoda Festival