Ladislav (Agnes) Snopko

Ladislav (Agnes) Snopko played an important role during the revolutionary period of November 1989 and served as a public official during Slovakia’s democratic transformation. Snopko was born in 1949 in Košice. He studied archaeology at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava.

While still at university, he became acquainted with many prominent figures of Slovak culture, science and politics. Together they organised various alternative cultural events, such as Koncert mladosti (Concert of Youth), Blues na Dunaji (Blues on the Danube), Folkfórum and Gitariáda. These events often ran counter to the regime’s cultural policy and were therefore closely monitored by the State Security (StB). He wrote for the magazines Večerník, Ľud, Mladé rozlety and Populár. He was also involved in the Bratislava nahlas (Bratislava Aloud) initiative.

During the revolutionary days of 1989, he was one of the founding members of the Public Against Violence (VPN) movement. On 10 December 1989, he co-organised the march under the slogan “Ahoj, Európa” (“Hello, Europe”), during which thousands of Bratislava residents crossed the opened Iron Curtain into Austria.

In 1990 he was a member of the Slovak National Council and chief coordinator for culture, education, sport and tourism of the Central European Initiative countries. He was the first post-November Minister of Culture in the government of “national understanding” and in the two subsequent Slovak governments; he was also repeatedly elected to the Council of the Capital City of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava, and to the Council of the Bratislava Self-Governing Region.

He also founded the Pro Slovakia culture fund and the magazine Profil súčasného výtvarného umenia (Profile of Contemporary Visual Art). He is an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. Since 1996 he has been actively engaged in developing and organising cultural life in Bratislava and Prague. From 2012 to 2014 he served as director of the Slovak Institute in Prague, and subsequently, until 30 June 2019, as director of the Lucerna Palace in Prague.