In the present-day explosion of the visual arts, the 'mass' presentation of traditional artistic fields, especially graphic art, are made to feel very inadequate. We find ourselves asking the question - how can one he topically relevant and at the same time continue using techniques that are centuries old? Can these techniques still interpret the contemporary world or do they merely represent the unnecessary slowing down of an inevitable process? Nor. however, do we want to pour the baby out with the bath water and interrupt the centuries-old continuity of printmaking whose extinction, according to Walter Julc, 'could speed up the erasing of society's memory and differences just as it would the characteristic structures of the creative process.' We live in fear of losing our cultural identity and inherited values. we are afraid of superficiality. banality and inadequacy just as we feel our inability to immerse ourselves into the time we are living in due to the absurd fear of losing it. Uncertainty is drowned out by the noise, headlong bustle and impersonal character of the information highway: the remedy to this is the exciting virtual hallucination. Our era is compared with that of Guicnburg: a new digital language has been born which is bringing about changes in means of communication, in our thinking and imagination. Even what is for us 'delay' swiftly disappears into the past, and we don't know what has lost its meaning or, on the contrary, has reacquired meaning. In all fields of human creativity, a universally perceived restlessness is undoubtedly also defined by our duty towards values passed down through the generations, since despite everything we still identify ourselves within the space of our own culture.
Questions such as these motivated the theme of the 3rd Prague International Triennial 2001 and the conferences that took place from September to November under the title 'The Restless Path, Paths of Restlessness'. The Triennial's conception, focused attention on the technological transformations that have since the 1990s led to a radical reappraisal of artistic practice to date. The incorporation of electronics, especially the digital image, into the creative process has been compared with the photography revolution at the beginning of the 20th century. Prague welcomed 26 artists from Australia, Argentina. Brazil. Finland, Croatia, Yugoslavia, Canada, Lithuania, Hungary, Germany, Nicaragua. Poland, Austria, Slovakia. Spain. the Ukraine, the LISA and the Czech Republic. The international jury comprised 9 theoreticians and critics from different countries. The specific artworks stimulated a lively international dialogue that reflected in a competent and focused way the most pressing questions concerning artistic practice both now and in the future. The wealth of artistic and pedagogical experience that most of the participants brought with them enabled a comparison of creative approaches formulated in specific cultural, social and political contexts. The artworks once again confirmed that experimentation and the transcending of definitions established over the centuries arc valid if they grow out of a clearly formulated artistic vision, authentic personal viewpoints and experiences. We believe that. although the Prague Triennial is one of the youngest and most 'compact' surveys of its kind, it has made a significant contribution to the international discussion about graphic ail as a field with specific creative characteristics that are in many respects even more open than other fields to current developments. The latest processes in printmaking were not simply demonstrated by the specific artworks, but were also formulated theoretically. We are very grateful to all the participating artists for their total 'space-time' involvement in installing their works, and to the critics for their committed and magnanimous attitude without which we couldn't have published this anthology.
To conclude, we would like to express our hope that the next Triennial in 2004 will be just as stimulating and fortunate in bringing people together as this one was.

With warmest regards, Yours,

Simeona Hošková
Olga Frídlová