Events: May 2016
April 2016
June 2016
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)
“Thoughts in a quiet pause while the firing squad recharges their weapons”
May 2, 2016, 19:00
An evening with author Radka Denemarková. More
Memory and Trauma
May 3, 2016, 17:00
Without memories of the past, it would be scarcely possible to orient oneself in the present and plan for the future. In what ways are our recollections of the past being transformed in connection with the advent of new media and geopolitical changes in the world? How can memory and trauma be explored from the perspective of the humanities? More
Timothy Snyder: Bloodlands and Black Earth
May 3, 2016, 19:00
On the occasion of the release of Czech language audio books of Bloodlands and Black Earth by US historian Timothy Snyder, translator Petruška Šustrová, historian Tomáš Bursík and Michael Žantovský will discuss historical events on the territory of today’s Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Baltic States in the 1930s and 1940s. More
Pavel Havel: Rr
May 5, 2016, 19:00
A trrragicomedy on the desirrre of Rrrobert Chrrroust, who strrruggled to prrronounce his r’s, to become an actorrr. Authorrrs Pavel Kohout and Václav Havel completed the play in 1973 and it was perrrformed just once, at a meeting of the banned wrrriterrrs at Hrrrádeček the following yearrr. The Václav Havel library prrresents a staged rrreading in a worrrld prrrremiere. More
Jan Drábek on Václav Havel and Vladimír Krajina
May 9, 2016, 19:00
The diplomat and author Jan Drábek will present his recollections of Václav Havel, with whom he became friends in early childhood. The two later studied together and their lives intersected in the US in the 1960s, during the Soviet invasion and later at Prague Castle and in diplomacy… More
The Secrets of Our Age – Russia Through the Prism of Hallucination
May 11, 2016, 19:00
A week before the opening of an exhibition by the Russian artist and graduate of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts Pavel Pepperštejn at Ostrava’s PLATO centre for contemporary art, we will explore, among other things, his as yet unpublished novel. Entitled The Secrets of Our Age, it sees Pepperštejn describe the reality of Russia in a manner unparalleled in previous literature. More
Denis Kazansky: Black Fever and the Donbass War
May 12, 2016, 17:00
Meeting with the Ukrainian blogger and journalist Denis Kazansky. More
Evenings with Polish Reporters III: Margo Rejmer’s Edge of Europe
May 12, 2016, 19:00
Meeting with the writer Margo Rejmer, who has spent the last number of years in Romania and Albania and is the author of Bucharest: Dust and Blood, literary reportage on a Romania buffeted between the legacy of the Ceausescu era and a dream of the “West”. The book, translated into Czech by Jarmila Horáková, was issued last year by publishers Dokořán – Jaroslava Jiskrová Máj. More
Václav Havel’s Prague
May 13, 2016, 18:00
Festival presentation of Zdeněk Lukeš’s book Praha Václava Havla (Václav Havel’s Prague) introducing 70 Prague addresses linked to the life and work of the playwright, dissident, last Czechoslovak and first Czech president Václav Havel.
Browsing with the Václav Havel Library
May 14, 2016, 11:00
An overview of the latest publications from the Václav Havel Library: Gauneři z Horních Počernic (The Rogues of Horní Počernice), Hovory v Lánech III. (1992) (Talks from Lány III (1992)), Pavel Juráček: Postava k podpírání (Pavel Juráček: Joseph Killian).
Allen Ginsberg as King and Pariah
May 16, 2016, 19:00
Václav Havel: “There was an intimate awareness of the beat generation in our country. I have to admit that the way the beatniks wrote and lived was close to my heart. I first encountered Allen Ginsberg in 1965 at the May Day celebrations, where he was elected king. I always had huge respect for the poet; I also admired his refinement, his intellectual abilities and the breadth of his vision.” More
The United States: Still United in Diversity?
May 17, 2016, 19:00
A discussion between Josef Jařab and Michael Žantovský on the following issues: The historical shaping of the American nation; the gradual Americanisation of society and culture following the Declaration of Independence; the assimilation of immigrants as a hope-filled, successful and problematic process; tensions between cultural pluralism and multiculturalism today; and the current presidential campaign. More
Tomáš Tožička: Why doesn’t helping poor counties change the world for the better?
May 18, 2016, 19:00
A great many resources – investments, cheap loans and development grants – flow from the wealthiest countries on the planet to the poorest. Despite all of this, little progress is apparent. The world continues to face extreme poverty, escalating differences and huge waves of internal and external refugees. Is there any way out of this vicious circle? More
Pyotr Savitsky: Co-Founder of the Euroasianist Movement
May 19, 2016, 19:00
Seminar focused on the turbulent fate of Pyotr Nikolayevich Savitsky, co-founder and ideologue of the Euroasianist movement. Savitsky emigrated to Czechoslovakia in 1921 but was taken away to the USSR after 1945 and imprisoned in the Gulag. After his return in 1961 he was also convicted in Czechoslovakia. We will also explore the inter-war Euroasianist movement and its significance today, in particular the philosophy of the founder of neo- Euroasianism, Alexandr Dugin. More
Generation Y – Havel’s Children
May 23, 2016, 19:00
Who are Generation Y – Havel’s Chidren, if you will – and what do they do? More
China on China: Project Sinopsis
May 24, 2016, 19:00
Presentation of a freshly launched project from the Institute of East Asia Studies at Prague’s Charles University and the AcaMedia association. The project aims to help increase understanding of China, its position in the world and our relationship to it on the basis of substantive analyses and by looking at the broader context of daily news stories. Working closely with the media, it will attempt to foster informed public discussion free of prejudice or illusions. More
Evening with Photographer Pavel Hroch
May 25, 2016, 19:00
Pictures from contemporary Cuba, the wild East, Kazakhstan and the Carpathian Banat… as well as a previously unpublished photo essay exploring the depths of rural Mexican religiosity. More
Václav Havel’s Prague
May 26, 2016, 19:00
Ceremonial presentation of Zdeněk Lukeš’s book Praha Václava Havla (Václav Havel’s Prague) (Václav Havel Library, 2016) introducing buildings in the metropolis connected to the life of the playwright, dissident and president. In several chapters it presents, in photographs by Pavel Hroch and other photographers, buildings constructed by his grandfather and father (the Lucerna Palace and buildings at Barrandov), as well as places linked to Havel’s childhood and youth, his years as a playwright and dissident period. More
Václav Havel’s European Dialogues: Europe Facing its Migration and Refugee Challenge: EU, nation states, civil society
May 30, 2016, 08:15
Europe Facing its Migration and Refugee Challenges: EU, Nation States and Civic Society More
(Russian) Propaganda & Disinformation In Ukraine: Current Challenges And Ways Forward
May 31, 2016, 19:00
Two years from the outbreak of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine and illegal annexation of Crimea, Ukraine is still facing many challenges for its future development. What is the state of the media in Ukraine? How are Russian media, propaganda and disinformation campaigns influencing development in Ukraine, the building of institution and political and public debate? And how could Western communities and civil societies help to overcome these challenges? More