Events: June 2013
May 2013
July 2013
Michal Cihlář: From the Life of Sewers
28/05/13 – 30/06/13 Exhibitions
Michal Cihlář, an artist mainly known to the Czech public for his colour linocuts and photographs of a series of manhole covers, is showing his work at Galerie Montmartre. The exhibition is taking place on the occasion of the publication of the monograph Ze života kanálů (From the Life of Sewers), the first title in the authorial series Detail v designu, design v detailu (Detail in Design, Design in Detail). The series, prepared by Michal Cihlář and Veronika Richterová, maps the subjects of their joint photography collections over the years and is issued by the Novela bohemica publishing house. More
Václav Havel – The First Czech Presidency
June 3, 2013, 19:00
The election of the first Czech president, what preceded it and what followed it are recalled by Václav Havel’s friend and colleague Luboš Dobrovský, the Czech Republic’s first president’s chancellor. Ivo Mathé will host the evening.
Czechoslovaks in the Gulag – Exhibition Opening
June 3, 2013, 17:00 Participation on local events
The ceremonial opening of a panel exhibition dedicated to the fates of Czechoslovak citizens interned in Soviet concentration camps. Its creators have recorded dozens of interviews with former prisoners and gathered a great deal of information in the NKVD archives as well as authentic items from camp life. The exhibition was first staged at the Václav Havel Library in Prague in March last year; after being shown at other cities and towns, it will now welcome visitors in Ostrava.
Czechoslovaks in the Gulag
03/06/13 – 30/06/13 Exhibitions
A panel exhibition dedicated to the fates of Czechoslovak citizens interned in Soviet concentration camps. Its creators have recorded dozens of interviews with former prisoners and gathered a great deal of information in the NKVD archives as well as authentic items from camp life. The exhibition was first staged at the Václav Havel Library in Prague in March last year; after being shown at other cities and towns, it will now welcome visitors in Ostrava.
Free Li Bifeng!
June 4, 2013, 17:00
On the day of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square events, the Václav Havel Library is taking part in a worldwide event in which the poetry of the imprisoned writer Li Bifeng is being read. The evening will be hosted by Prof. Olga Lomová, while Daniel Konrád and Jáchym Topol will read from Li Bifeng’s poems and diary entries. More
Havel-Hvížďala Letters Published
June 4, 2013, 19:00
Presentation of correspondence between Karel Hvížďala and Václav Havel from the period 1984 to 2006 that was not previously published in the books Disturbing the Peace and To the Castle and Back. Commentator Petr Fischer will present the collection, while Dagmar Voňková will perform music and sing.
David Danaher: Václav Havel’s Conception of East and West
June 5, 2013, 11:00
Where did the significance of the Cold War lie in Václav Havel’s view? Was the East prior to 1989 the very opposite of the West and can the changes that followed 1989 by regarded as a definitive victory for “Western” civilisation and “Western” cultural values? How does the subject of East and West relate in Havel’s writings to the subject of world globalisation after 1989? A brief overview of arguments selected from one chapter of David Danaher’s book Reading Václav Havel will serve as a stimulus to a broader discussion. More
Kateřina Rudčenková: I Accept All Foreign Aquariums Uncritically
June 5, 2013, 19:00
Kateřina Rudčenková is one of the most distinctive contemporary female poets. In her freshly published collection Chůze po dunách (Walking Over Dunes), she addresses the question of how a person ought to spend their life. Those who don’t know or have an idea but want to know should not miss this evening at the VHL. In an essay, poet and critic Dora Kaprálová will present, challenge and (?) exasperate Kateřina.
European Identity and its Czech Reflection
June 6, 2013, 09:00 Conferences
By means of four panel discussions – The Historical Roots of European Identity: Czechs and Europe; The Cultural Context of Europeanness: Core or Facade?; Europe as an Economic Space and Global Player?; and The European Union: Political Chimera, Project or Reality? – this one-day conference will explore the phenomenon of European identity in a Czech context. More
On the Cross of Love
June 12, 2013, 19:00
Poets Josip Osti, Rezka Kanzian and Jurij Paljk, otherwise known as the group Slovenia on the Border, will present Josip Osti’s new collection On the Cross of Love before Lenka Daňhelová and Peter Kuhar introduce the anthology S petdesetimi glasovi govorim (I Speak with Fifty Voices). The evening will conclude with a musical performance by KRRAAKKK, a group of musicians and artists from Brno and Ostrava: Jennifer de Felice (bass, computer) Jiří Macháček (violin, sounds, voices) Beáta Spáčilová (ujing, voices)
A Tribute to Jan Lopatka
June 13, 2013, 19:00 Participation on local events
On the 20th anniversary of the death of the important Czech literary critic and editor Jan Lopatka, this tribute evening will feature his friends, collaborators and students, including writers from the magazine Tvář (Bohumil Doležal, Jan Nedvěd, Karel Štindl, Zdeněk Hejda). Milan Šútovec will recall Lopatka’s cooperation with Slovenskými pohľady, Jiří Brabec his work on the samizdat Slovník českých spisovatelů (Dictionary of Czech Writers), and Ivan M. Havel and Tomáš Vrba the part he played in the Edice Expedice samizdat series. Jan Šulc, Zbyněk Jančařík and Terezie Pokorná will also speak, while Michael Špirit, editor of Lopatka’s work, will discuss his overall critical and publishing activities. The evening will conclude with the screening of a documentary about Jan Lopatka (cc. 30 min.) made by Petr Kotyk in 1990.
Monodrama III. Jan Hanč – Events
June 18, 2013, 19:00
June’s evening in a series of staged readings of works by Czech and foreign writers will recall the work of one of the most conscientious artists in Czech literature, the poet and prose author Jan Hanč, the 50th anniversary of whose death will take place in July. This evening will spotlight his short prose texts collected together under the title Události (Events) (1995) and mediate his unique view of the world to visitors/listeners; it is a perspective that is thoroughly exacting and absent of all poetic ballast, but nevertheless (or perhaps therefore) it is not lacking in genuine poetry.
Judita Matyášová – Sophie’s Choice, Czech-Style
June 19, 2013, 19:00
Inspirational stories of people who were not afraid to help even in the toughest times. This project maps the fates of 150 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia. Similarly to Sophie in the Styron novel, they and their families had to choose just one of their offspring and get them to safety. To Denmark and later to Sweden. After the war, these children’s lives took different directions and they lost contact with each other. More
A Fireside Chat
June 25, 2013, 15:00 Participation on local events
A debate hosted by journalist, theatre academic and critic Vladimír Just on new and prepared productions of Václav Havel’s plays. Lenka Jungmannová, editor of a new book edition of Václav Havel’s Anticodes, a collection of visual poems, has accepted an invitation to take part in the discussion at the Klicperovo divadlo theatre’s Stage in the Attic. Meanwhile, Václav Havel Library editor Anna Freimanová will the present the book Příležitostný portrét Václava Havla (An Occasional Portrait of Václav Havel), which comprises reviews, interviews and essays by leading Czech journalists, politicians and friends of the late president; they were written in connection with his 75th birthday and subsequent passing in 2011. More
VHL Film Marathon VI: Václav Havel (Not Only) in the Mirror of Communist Propaganda
June 25, 2013, 18:00
Immediately after the creation of Charter 77, the dissent and Václav Havel personally became the target of a repeated and seditious campaign on the part of the Communist-controlled media, including Czech Television. Its propaganda programmes deformed reality and frequently discredited, ridiculed or by contrast demonized the political opposition. Information that penetrated the country from the West was presented as singularly objectionable and ideologically unfriendly. It is telling that the producers of many such TV programmes remained anonymous. More
Now Something from Life
June 26, 2013, 19:00
History and background to Anna Blažíčková’s book Teď něco ze života (Now Something from Life), which deals with an entire epoch of huge significance to the Czech Republic – the second half of the 20th century – from the personal perspective of the writer and her husband, Přemysl Blažíček, a phenomenal literary academic with a sharp sense of reality. Presented by Michael Špirit and Robert Krumphanzl. Anna Blažíčková will appear in conversation with Věra Koubová. The evening is being organised in cooperation with the TRIÁDA publishing house.
