It also helped me when I was at university and then at the gallery, when I was doing illustration at the Biennale, so then the master, at that time he was the director, asked me if I wanted to go to the studio of professor Brunovský or Miro Cipár. Professor Brunovský was a huge name for me, so I asked if I could go to him. Because I was carrying a group of French-speaking Biennale participants. We were at professor Brunovský's, I still have his studio in front of my eyes. How he stood there nobly and talked and I translated. Then Miroslav Válek, the Minister of Culture at the time, invited me to the reception, and Mr. Brunovsky met me there and said that you had arranged it well. He bowed to me, so I was floating there in the seventh heaven. From then on, I was also close to Ms. Klárika, and Albín Brunovský gave me works for the exhibitions for years, which was very important for me, because the name was such a leitmotif for other artists as well. When I said that professor Brunovský was also coming, of course they too confidently put their works in the hands of the young curator.
At that time, I was spending the summer with my grandmother in Košice, and my father drove for us. Father came to grandmother, we were afraid because we didn't know what was waiting for us. He had a big car because he was very hardworking. We had one of the first cars in Liptovský Mikuláš. I remember exactly what the car looked like. We went through Branisko and went between the tanks. The road was simply narrow. There were tanks everywhere in front of us, behind us. I remember my anxiety because that small car among the big tanks. There was no escape either forward or backward. Not overtaking or anything. Normally, I still don't understand how my father dared to do this. But probably the fear that we were going among those tanks was... But he kept telling us to sit there. We were tiny, nervous, we wanted to play. We also had a habit of waving at cars. So we just sat there the whole way. That was one such negative moment when I was actually afraid.
There was one more problem, that in 1883 there was a big fire in Vrbice and Lipovský Mikuláš, where all but one factory burned down. But actually all the manufacturers got back on their feet. And thanks to industry and the industrial revolution, they built much more modern and stronger factories. So even the fire did not break those manufacturers and they brought enormous technical progress to the city. They developed factories with new technologies and brought that technology into their homes. Because it was the period of the first republic, where there was a huge not only economic, but also cultural flourishing. So the standard of living rose, due to the fact that they were well materially provided. They met people from abroad, not only from the region. they met many politicians, many important personalities from the world and from Europe who came to Liptovský Mikuláš. And it was important for these manufacturers to maintain correct business relations. They were very patient with the professionalism and professional growth of their children, whom they sent to study. The wives of these manufacturers sowed for charity and devoted themselves to social life. They supported the publishing of publications, the education of poorer talented children. The period of the first republic contributed a lot to the development of Liptovský Mikuláš.
Zora Petrášová was born in March 1955 in Liptovský Mikuláš. Her mother, nee Zora Javošová, came from Vrbice, a small village near Liptovský Mikuláš. She was born in the house of the famous poet Martin Rázus. Father František Margovec, on the other hand, came from Piešťany. Her childhood and high school days during communism were accompanied by interrogations of her parents. Zora’s aunt, and therefore her mother’s sister, was the wife of a tanner, Ivan Grub, who was originally from the USA. Finally, she decided to leave, and after the nationalization of the factories in Mikuláš, Ivan Grub followed her. The emigration of Zora’s aunt also had an impact on Zora’s family. She remembers that every time her aunt called home to Czechoslovakia, the first thing she heard was a click. Zora studied history and art at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Comenius University in Bratislava. She worked at the Municipal Cultural Center, ran the Revue Piešťany magazine, and in 1993 became the director of the Municipal Cultural Center in Piešťany. She performed this function until 2000. Zora is the author of the international cultural project Mosty - Bridges. Its main idea is a joint presentation of Slovak and foreign artists. From 2003 to 2012, the Mosty project “bridged” ten European cities with the people of Piešťany. Zora Petrášová organized, conceptually and curated 200 exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad. On the occasion of her life anniversary in 2015, she prepared the project The Wondering Mind together with the Belgian graphic artist Chris Verheyen (student of Albín Brunovský). It is an international traveling exhibition of graphics by 60 artists from 23 countries of the world, which travels to various cities around the world. She also curated the exhibition Reflexie, which presented the work of 39 Slovak authors and had its premiere in the Novohrad Museum and Gallery in Lučenac (2018), from where it traveled to other Slovak cities. In its story, the monument mentions the student days during communism, but also the family of Grub tanners, who lost almost everything during totalitarianism and nationalization. It tells the story of how the tanners in Liptovský Mikuláš developed the community with their investments, bet on education and believed in the idea of Czechoslovakia, but the change of regime finally thwarted all their efforts.
