Divus Information

Divus was established by Ivan Mecl in 1992 as an art publishing house with a technically-equipped production center. Over time the project grew and now has broad influence with cultural production. After several book publications the studio published its first edition of the art review Divus. This large-format publication brought together outsider art, style, the alternative, the exclusive and the tasteless – the first three issues defined the way for the whole project. In 1997, Divus put out the first edition of Umelec, a magazine devoted to contemporary art and culture. In 2000, the magazine began to come out in both Czech and English, and in 2002, a French edition of Umelec was published and a monthly multimedia presentation of activities associated with contemporary art was made for the Palais de Tokyo. Divus opened its first part of the Eastern Alliance project on June 19, 2004, at the Lichturm in Berlin, and at the beginning of 2005 it published the first Czech-German edition of the magazine. An editorial team has been set up in Berlin with the journalist, Henny Pagels. In the middle of 2005 Divus published a Czech-Spanish version of the Umelec magazine. Throughout the publishing house‘s existence, Divus has printed many other books about contemporary culture, including profile publications dedicated to individual artists and artistic groups. Divus also publishes comic works and unclassifiable authors. A complete list of publications is available at www.divus.cc