Members of the Czech protest art group Ztohoven have won an NG 333 prize from the Národní Galerie national art museum in Prague as they await trail on charges that could bring up to three years in prison.
Six members of the group await trial for hacking into a video feed of public-service broadcaster CT2's morning program to air a simulated nuclear detonation in the Krkonoše mountains last June. A seventh member of the group is believed to have been abroad and faces trial upon return to the Czech Republic, according to a report on aktuálne.cz.
Trutnov-based prosecutor Dušan Ondrácek told aktuálne.cz that the trial of the first six Ztohoven members was expected to start in January.
According to the Ztohoven MySpace page, the hack was designed to make viewers question the reality of what is presented by media companies and to encourage people to think about what they see and hear.
The Národní Galerie lauded Ztohoven for a 2003 stunt in which a Jirí David neon heart atop the Pražský Hrad castle in Prague was altered to become a question mark, as well as for its June 2007 action on Ceská Televize (CT).
"The biggest turmoil and source of the greatest arguments was probably [Ztohoven's] last project, when the young artist managed to hack into a Ceská Televize broadcast to mount a simulated atomic explosion in Krkonoše", stated a museum release announcing the NG 333 prize winners.
