Events: June 2020
May 2020
July 2020
Drought in Czechia
June 1, 2020, 19:00
In connection with both climate change and the intensive economic usage of the landscape, the subject of drought has become increasingly common. Indeed, the Czech environment minister has spoken of the worst drought in 500 years. However, a glance outside one’s window might give the impression that nature in the Czech Republic is blooming. Is the Czech countryside genuinely drying up? Do we have the power and the technology to keep water in the ground? And does the will do so exist? More
Ondřej Štindl: When Your Head Turns
June 2, 2020, 19:00
A novel at the intersection of satire, horror, psychodrama and road movie. It offers a raw and harrowing caricature of today’s divided Czech society, as well as a portrait of existential crisis, fear of oblivion and desire to escape. More
China and the Czech Republic – A Strategic Partnership?
June 4, 2020, 19:00
In early June in the final year of normalisation, people in Czechoslovakia followed the events of the “Beijing Spring” via foreign broadcasts, sympathising with the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. A quarter-century later, the Czech government launched a “restart” of Czech-Chinese relations and the People’s Republic of China became our strategic partner. More
Musical Evening: Malé Zvíře
June 15, 2020, 19:00
Shortly after the initiation of the large orchestra Zvíře jménem Podzim, the literary-focused Malé zvíře was established as a side project to the main band. The combination of readings, screenings and songs is more intimate than a rock concert – and this allows the formation to draw you even more deeply into their eerie universe. More
X10: Filip Topol – Short Stories Brought to Life
June 17, 2020, 19:00
… pigeon flames, a moth shelter. An experimental text collage that doesn’t endeavour to present the author or serve as a representative selection of his prose works but rather to hint at a path. From a spittle-flecked pub to a girl, from blood and sweat to Mozart, from a teen with a caustic view of the world to a shaman gazing into the afterlife. More
If Only For One Day
June 18, 2020, 17:00
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso celebrates his 85th birthday on 6 July. In that connection, this gathering will focus on various aspects of his place in Czech political and philosophical discourse. It will also include the premiere of the restored student documentary Óm, which maps the Dalai Lama’s first visit to Czechoslovakia, as well as a short Tibetan ceremony for his long life. More
Daňa Horáková: On Pavel Juráček
June 18, 2020, 20:00
The first print edition of O Pavlu Juráčkovi (On Pavel Juráček) – a masterfully written, readable book of prose – was published in 1978 in the Expedice (Dispatch) and Petlice (Padlock) samizdat series. The book was the basis for the German feature film Tag der Idioten (The Day of the Idiots), which in 1983 won the Deutschen Filmpreis in Gold award. More
T. S. Eliot: Christian – Critic – Poet
June 22, 2020, 19:00
Thomas Stearns Eliot is often regarded as one the most significant artists in modern English literature, as an author who can be boldly placed on the same level as Shakespeare. In his poetry and essay writing he set standards that for a century literature has adhered to, perhaps defined itself in opposition to, but cannot ignore. Publishers Argo house recently brought out Křesťan – kritik – básník (Christian – Critic – Poet), an extensive collection of Eliot’s essays. It will be discussed by the translators and English Studies specialists Martin Hilský, Martin Pokorný and Petr Onufer, with English Studies expert and literary critic Ladislav Nagy serving as moderator. More
Telling Stories in the Families of Holocaust Survivors
June 24, 2020, 19:00
They survived the concentration camps and started new lives after the war. Some wanted to “erase” their memories, others spoke about them constantly. Many survivors didn’t tell their offspring about their pasts, fearing that they would pass their trauma on to them, and refused to discuss their Jewish identity. They believed that by keeping silent they would protect their children from further problems that hung over them in the communist period. It was only in the 1990s that this subject was gradually aired within families. Věra Roubalová will discuss the experiences of the second and third generation of survivors, who to this day are dealing with how their predecessors’ tragic fates have shaped them. More
Will Freedom Survive the Pandemic?
June 25, 2020, 20:00
A virtual debate about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the basic rights and freedoms associated with the principles of liberal democracy, inspired by the Czech edition of the book-length essay Is it tomorrow, yet? How the pandemic changes Europe by the sociologist and politologist Ivan Krastev. More