Otomar Klodner

"When I was working at the Úklid, I got a contract - Zbyněk Fišer, Nerudova Street. House cleaning, apartment cleaning and window cleaning. So I thought: 'This is weird. That name says something to me, I think I know it.' It was a terrible coincidence. I get there and it's actually Egon Bondy who answers the door. So I'm like a young man and I'm honestly on my ass and I'm terrified and I'm like, 'Wow, what an icon.' So I wash his windows and everything. Word got around and somehow we hit it off with Mr Bondy and I sat there all morning. Bondy liked to talk, so I got to hear his whole life. He gave me his books, which were lying around. There was nothing there but a bed, a desk, and bookcases. The whole apartment in Nerudovka was a huge library, so it was hard to clean and of course it was dusty. I have to admit, the very first time I was at his place, when I was sweeping under the bed and clearing out clumps of dust, I came across a wooden cigarette holder. And I stole it — I kept it. I told myself: ‘I can’t just leave without this.’ So to this day, I still have Egon Bondy’s cigarette holder. Somehow we just clicked, so I started going there regularly. Then I began bringing friends along. It turned into a kind of discussion circle, and we simply kept meeting with Bondy — and it was really great.”

"I rather remember - and I still have this hidden at home - how they threw smoke bombs at demonstrations, but I don't know which ones, there were more. But as the smoke bombs were being thrown, I suddenly had the feeling that I wanted to have it at home as a trophy, the smoke bomb. So I looked one up, as it smelled, and now it stopped smelling, so it just stayed there. I ran over to it and now I was going to pick it up and I didn't realize that the thing was hot all the time because there was probably something burning inside or something. So I got burned and now I've thrown it away. I'm like, 'Well, I need it. I want to have it.' So I didn't really know what to do, and then I had to kick it away from the demonstration for about twenty minutes. I kept kicking it with my foot to cool it down and to pick it up. I still have it hidden to this day, this artifact that I was digging up during a demonstration where somebody was getting beaten up and sprayed, and I was just guarding my smoke bomb so that nobody would take it away or squash it."