Events: April 2016
March 2016
May 2016
Who Killed Boris Nemtsov?
April 1, 2016, 19:00
The prominent Moscow lawyers Vadim Prokhorov and Olga Mikhailova have for many years been focused on legal cases and political trials involving Russian opposition leaders (Ilya Yashin, Alexei Navalny and others). They are at present jointly representing Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of the well-known Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in spring last year. Prokhorov and Mikhailova will primarily discuss that case, the investigation into it and little-known details surrounding the case. More
Five Years of Leaving
April 5, 2016, 18:00
The film Leaving is the story of a turning point in a human life. Former chancellor Vilém Rieger is unable to come to terms inwardly with the loss of his position. At the same time – and above all – he is forced to experience the decline of his world, his “court”, and to realise how little he has actually known. More
Evenings with Polish Reporters II: How to Write About National History
April 5, 2016, 19:30
Some historical events both unite and divide society. The Warsaw Uprising and the Mašín brothers’ actions are today primarily symbols. How to speak about them? More
The New Left, Czech-Style: Havel’s The Power of the Powerless in the Western Context
April 6, 2016, 19:00
At the end of the 1960s the New Left rejected not only the capitalism of the West but also the bureaucratism of the Soviet East and with it Western trade union bodies and political parties, social democratic and communist. Against their hierarchical and centralised organisation “from above” they proposed anarchistic and decentralised self-organisation “from below”. Contrasting with their plans to remake society by means of state power, they called for the transformation of life on the basis of immediate decisions by individuals. Instead of a Utopia that would follow the arrival of a bright future “there and later” they advocated for a revolution of everyday life “here and now”. More
Presentation of the Spring Edition of Revolver Revue (102/2016): Bondy + Prigov
April 7, 2016, 19:00
Discussion of the cooperation between Egon Bondy and the State Security (secret police), how it relates to his work and also Czech society’s willingness and ability to reflect on such realities. Petr Blažek, Radek Schovánek, Marek Vajchr and Miroslav Vodrážka will participate in the debate while Adam Drda will moderate. More
Meeting and Press Conference with Rana Husseini
April 8, 2016, 10:30
Meeting with the Jordanian journalist, feminist and human rights activist Rana Husseini (The Jordan Times), a long-term campaigner against violence against women in the Middle East. Thanks to her years of investigative work (her book Murder in the Name of Honour came out in 2009) she has successfully brought the subject to international attention. More
Meeting with Stone Dreams author Akram Aylisi
April 11, 2016, 19:00
Meeting with the work of Azerbaijani novelist Akram Aylisi, whose hotly discussed novel Stone Dreams was last year published in a Czech translation (by Alexandra Stelibská). More
Does Live Music Belong in the Public Space in Prague?
April 13, 2016, 19:00
A new edict has come into force: Prague has become a city where musicians are unwelcome in the public space. What are things like in other European metropolises? What unwritten rules govern busking? What is the value of street performers? What problems accompany busking? And how is a long-term tendency toward control reflected in the language of Prague edicts? More
Kamila Zlatušková: The Search for (Czech) Television
April 14, 2016, 19:00
Evening with producer Kamila Zlatušková who, with her team, will present the history of documentary films (Into the Clouds We Gaze, Goat, Steam on the River) and series (Ex-premieres, Little Birds, Class 8 A, Golden Youth) that were created at public service broadcaster Czech Television and represented an alternative platform at the station. More
Islam as a Test of Civic Responsibility?
April 15, 2016, 18:00
18:00–19:30 Debate Is the current inflated atmosphere surrounding Islam in this country merely a media bubble or the start of a self-fulfilling prophecy? More
Film Evening: Nazi and Communist Film Propaganda
April 18, 2016, 19:00
Presentation of Richard Taylor’s book Film Propaganda: Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany coupled with a screening of propaganda pictures. More
Karel Hvížďala: Europe, Russia, Terrorists and Refugees
April 18, 2016, 17:00
Interviews chiefly conducted with university professors and teachers living outside the CR mapping the crises of 2015 framed by two massacres in Paris, the 7 January murder of members of the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo and the killing of 130 people on the night of 13–14 November. More
Vladimir 518 – Tribes
April 19, 2016, 19:00
Evening with Vladimir 518, editor of the successful books Kmeny (Tribes) and Kmeny 0 (Tribes O), which characterise Czech pre- and post-revolution urban subcultures succinctly. They compare the analogies and differences between individual groups, map the behaviour of marginal cultures in changing times and look for common denominators at the centre of such social structures. More
Words and Pictures Unleashed – Forms of Ecstasy in Russian Culture
April 20, 2016, 19:00
This summer an exhibition organised by the Museum of Czech Literature in cooperation with the VHL linked to what would have been Václav Havel’s 80th birthday will take place at Prague’s Letohrádek Hvězda (Star Summer Palace). Perhaps surprisingly, it will offer the first major presentation in the Czech Republic of the work of Dmitri Prigov, one of the most famous poets, visual artists and performers of Russian Conceptualism. More
Czech Normalisation Pop
April 21, 2016, 19:00
Today we look at the 1970s and ‘80s in Czechoslovakia with wide-eyed wonder: How could an everyday lie prove so successful? More
Václav Havel: Politics and Conscience
21/04/16 – 07/05/16
The exhibition marking what would have been Václav Havel’s 80th birthday comprises quotations from his works, as well as well known and lesser known photographs. It has been organised in cooperation with the Czech Centres network and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. (Photo APF / Jerome Delay)
KineDok I: School Time for Miss Roma
April 22, 2016, 18:00
We will launch the first evening at the Václav Havel Library organised in cooperation with KineDok, which is focused on the alternative distribution of authorial documentaries in Central and Eastern Europe, with a screening of the film School Time for Miss Roma (Croatia, 2015, 82 min.). The film follows the stories of three Roma girls and their search for their own identity at secondary school. More
Evening with Jan Sokol
April 25, 2016, 19:00
Meeting with the philosopher, teacher and translator Jan Sokol focused on his new publications and taking place just days after he reaches the personal milestone of his 80th birthday. More
12 Years of Czech Membership of the EU: Have Our Expectations and Those of Brussels Been Fulfilled?
April 26, 2016, 19:00
The Institute of International Studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Social Sciences (IMS FSV UK), the Václav Havel Library and EUROPEUM have organised a public discussion on the occasion of the anniversary of Czech accession to the European Union. More
Why Do We Need the National Gallery?
April 27, 2016, 19:00
More than 30,000 people attended celebrations of the 220th anniversary of the foundation of the National Gallery in Prague. What is preventing the NG from always being such a draw? What is “national” about it? Does anybody believe any more that “the spirit of the nation can be elevated through works of art”? And do we have any need whatever for a large state art gallery? More
The Dissent’s Left-Wing Legacy
April 28, 2016, 19:00
Today the central story of the Czechoslovak dissent is told from a position that ignores and plays down the independent socialist and reform communist currents that it contained. Is the legacy of Czechoslovak dissident ideologically interesting to today’s Czech left? Is it possible to build on it constructively? Or does the situation of today’s globalised world lend itself more to a search for inspiration in “Western thinking”? More