Guests: The book’s authors Barbora Baronová and Alice Koubová, as well as Jiří Šedivý (European Defence Agency) and Anna Kárníková (Hnutí DUHA – Friends of the Earth), who took part in the book as interviewees.

The 10-year anniversary of his unjust imprisonment will be marked at the Václav Havel Library by IlhamTohti’s daughter Jewher Ilham, Enver Can, IlhamTohti’s tireless defender and president of the IlhamTohti Institute, Vice President of the Senate of the Czech Parliament Jiří Oberfalzer, Ambassador of the United States of America Bijan Sabet, Deputy Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib and Ondřej Klimeš, Sinologist and Uygur expert from the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences.

Kateřina Procházková, journalist and analyst with the SINOPSIS project, will moderate the discussion.

The evening will be held in Czech and English with simultaneous interpretation.

Václav Havel wrote Temptation, a now legendary variation on the Faust myth, in 1985. Shortly afterwards he asked the rock band The Plastic People of the Universe (PPU) to compose and record music for the planned world premiere at Vienna’s Burgtheatr. They did so, though in the end director Hans Kleber decided to use just to use a number of fragments. PPU founder Mejla Hlava’s music wasn’t heard in Havel’s Temptation until 1999, under the direction of Andrej Krob at the Klicper Theatre in Hradec Králové. However, that was a different age – and different music. 

The label Guerilla Records has managed to acquire not only the original tape of PPU music but also a recording of Temptation read by Havel himself in 1985. This combination gave rise to anextraordinarily compelling “audio performance” that listeners can visit at any time of day and regardless of the season.

The evening will open with the songs of Sylvie Krobová. The audio book Václav Havel & The Plastic People of the Universe: Temptation will be ceremonially presented by Vladimír “Lábus” Drápal of Guerilla Records and Anna Freimanová of the Václav Havel Library. The actual “baptism” will be carried out by PPU bandleader Josef Janíček, who will also play a few songs acoustically, and cellist Tomáš Schilla, who took part in the Temptation recording. 

The audience can also look forward to the screening of a short video from a band rehearsal attended by Václav Havel that was shot in December 1985 by Jan Kašpar. 

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Guerilla Records.

Food interactions, and the communication involved in them, play a vital role in maintaining balance and supporting diversity in natural ecosystems. Imbalances in predator-prey interactions can impactnutrient cycling and various plant characteristics. Bats, birds and ants are undoubtedly among the most significant insectivorous predators, the disappearance of which can affect insect prey populations and, later, plants. Plants, however, defend themselves vigorously against herbivorous insects, and communicate in a variety of ways with predators higher up the food chain about the presence of insects.

Kateřina Sam is a Czech scientist, field biologist and ecologist at the Biological Centre of the CAS and the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. She explores the untold relationships in nature. In the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and other exotic places around the world she studies the connections between carnivorous birds and insects, or maps the reaction of trees when they are deprived of caterpillars. Forbes magazine has ranked her as one of the best contemporary Czech scientists and she is among a small group of Czech scientists who have been awarded a prestigious ERC grant.

Milkani’s fascinating life story, which is closely linked to the Czech milieu, is laid out in more than 20 chapters. He brings a number of personal memories of many famous Czech, Albanian and European personalities from the field of cinema and politics (e.g., actress Ema Černá, Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, Václav Havel and others), but the book also captures the interesting fates of some ordinary Czechs and Albanians. Written with insight and nostalgia, the book offers the Czech reader a unique insight into the conditions in the once isolated Albania, into its cultural realities, which are virtually unknown in this country. It also captureswell how Czechoslovakia was considered a culturally advanced and relatively liberal country at the end of the 1950s, from the Albanian point of view. This perspective can also be very valuable for the perception of one’s own past. From the point of view of Czech-Albanian relations, the book is an absolutely crucial source proving that the two nations are linked by a notable tradition of cooperation, which is, however, completely unknown, especially in our country. Piro Milkani himself is the embodiment of this tradition. 

Excerpts from the book will be read by Bára Štěpánová in the presence of the author Piro Milkani.

Jana Tomsová will moderate the event.

Guests: psychologist Zuzana Peterová, historian Pavla Plachá and historian and writer Petr Placák

Moderated by historian and philosopher Petr Hlaváček, director of the Department of Research and Education at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.

Hrobka and its activities will be discussed by writers Ivan Adamovič and Ivo Fencl and journalist Luděk Bednář.

Chaired by Martin Jiroušek, journalist and horror buff.

Nothing is as it used to be. Does literature have any aesthetic autonomy left? 

Literary criteria in the Czech Republic (and not only in the Czech Republic) are undergoing a certain revision. It is as if it no longer matters how a work is written, what its aesthetic qualities are, to what extent a text can be a microcosm in its own right. In the public sphere, attention is afforded to works that meet notions of what is “supposed” to be written about today – above all, whether they fulfil the current notions of what is right and ethical; the word empathy is the incantation. Again, whether the creator is a good citizen, whether he/she does not say or do something “unacceptable” in public, is becoming crucial.

At the same time, we are witnessing yet another revision – and a more fundamental or far-reaching one. Literary history will never be the same again, simply because the era of strong male dominance is over and historical material is being reassessed.

However, the programme does not wish to be a conservative defender and apologist for the old order. Rather it is driven by an interest in the process of transformation of literary criteria as a picture of changing societal and political orders.

Ideally it could be a dialogue between those who “lived it here” and those who “will live it here”.

The Czech edition of the book (entitled O útěše: jakžít s nadějí v temných časech), issued by the Kalich publishing house, will be presented by Michael Ignatieff together with his guests, French political scientist and historian Jacques Rupnik and Czech philosopher Tereza Matějčková.

The debate will be moderated by Michael Žantovský.