Events: February 2024
January 2024
March 2024
Full-On Decade: Launch of Book on 1990s Czech Pop
February 1, 2024, 19:00
Freedom, euphoria, the whole world opening up. The 1990s represented an extraordinary time in the Czech Republic. And, perhaps for the last time ever, popular music played a major role. Dekáda naplno (Full-On Decade), the first comprehensive book on the Czech music scene in the wake of the Velvet Revolution, tells the story of the Czech music scene post-1989. Radek Diestler, a music historian who experienced those times at first hand, describes with erudition, insight and wit the creation of a club and festival network, the building of a record industry and concert agencies, changes in the perception and sale of music, the fate of metal and folk and the emergence of Czech indie and dance scenes. “We’ve already got the necessary time gap. And, unfortunately, the first protagonists of those times are slowly beginning to pass into the hereafter,” he comments, explaining why the time is now ripe to evaluate a period characterised by freedom, courage and improvised rules. The book contains unique photographs and interviews with important figures of that period. More
Tomáš Etzler: Journalist in China 2 – Don’t Lose Your Mind!
February 5, 2024, 19:00
Tomáš Etzler served as Czech Television’s correspondent in China for many years and also worked in Hong Kong. He is now bringing out Nezešílet! (Don’t Lose Your Mind!), the follow-up to his famous “Asian book” Co jsem to proboha udělal? (What on Earth Have I Done?), mapping the respected journalist and reporter’s intense experiences during more than a decade in China. How did the one-child policy affect China’s development? What is the status of women there? What was the most famous Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo like? Should we be concerned by Chinese expansionism? Get insights into the lives of ordinary Chinese people and into the life of a journalist reporting from a totalitarian state. The discussion with Tomáš Etzler will be moderated by Jáchym Topol.
Václav Havel: Temptation – An Andrej Krob Video Evening
February 12, 2024, 19:00
An evening of archival film. Appearing on screen will be Ivan M. Havel, Petruska Šustrová, Jarmilka Bělíková, Dasha Ilkovičová-Havlova, Jirka Mrázek, Petr Tat'oun and Divadlo na tahu actors Lukáš Hrabětá, Jana Sekyrová, Sylva Krobová, Karel Bureš, Aleš Duda and Jan Kašpar. In 1985 Václav Havel wrote his own take on the Faust myth, titling it Pokoušení (Temptation). In the play the hero also faces vain seductive offers – here too a pact with the devil is central. However, this Faust is set in the present day and he is fighting primarily against himself, his own slyness, his own pride, the devil within him. More
In Conversation With... Matt Field
February 13, 2024, 19:00
In little over a year, the UK’s ambassador to Prague, Matt Field, has become perhaps the most recognisable foreign diplomat in the Czech Republic. But what does he regard as the most important aspects of his mission in the country? How does he view Czech-British relations in 2024? And what are the values he is most keen to promote in his position? Matt Field will discuss these questions and more with Tereza Willoughby, head of arts news at public broadcaster Czech Television. More
The Free Academy: Ivan Foletti
February 15, 2024, 19:00
Russia, Empire and the Middle Ages: A Simple Equation? More
The Garden Party Belongs to All! For No Fewer Than 60 Years
February 19, 2024, 19:00
Václav Havel: The Garden Party. A stage reading by students from the Department of Dramatic Theatre at DAMU More
Debate with Respekt
February 20, 2024, 19:00
Discussion featuring editors from the weekly Respekt and their guess. For more details and the names of guests visit www.vaclavhavel.cz prior to the event.
Book Presentation: Paramisa – Fairytales and Tales of Romany Storytellers from the Former Czechoslovakia
February 21, 2024, 19:00
Until a few decades ago, tales were handed down among the Roma in the former Czechoslovakia. They were recounted mainly by men, and the audience was made up chiefly of adults, not children. Before storytelling sessions were overtaken by television and other forms of entertainment, the Romani artist Milena Hübschmannová (1933–2005) recorded hundreds of such stories on tape. She published some of them herself in the 1973 book Romské pohádky (Romani Fairy Tales), while others, recorded after the publication of the first collection, have only now been published in Czech. The launch of the book Paramisa. Pohádky a příběhy romských vypravěčů z bývalého Československa (Paramisa: Fairytales and Tales of Romany Storytellers from the Former Czechoslovakia) will be accompanied by a presentation of illustrations by Ladislava Gažiová and readings by a number of Romani authors from their own adaptations of folk tales. The book will be “christened” by Tereza Hrabovská, daughter of Milena Hübschmann, and Josef Goroľ, the son of one of the storytellers. More
Karel Hubáček 100
February 22, 2024, 19:00
This evening dedicated to the architect Karel Hubáček, winner of international awards, founder of the legendary SIAL studio, is being held on the centenary of his birth. Examples of the studio’s most notable projects will be presented by Miroslav Masák, architect, university professor and former advisor to President Václav Havel, while Petr Kratochvíl, an architectural theorist and university teacher, will discuss Karel Hubáček the man.
Bohdan Holomíček: Album
February 29, 2024, 19:00
As its 700th publication, the TORST publishing house is issuing a photography book by Bohdan Holomíček entitled Album 1958-1977 bringing together 238 photographs from the first 20 years of Holomíček’s career. It is the second in a series of books with the unifying title Album that maps his photographic work. The first, Album Václav (The Václav Album), was published in 2016 and captures Václav Havel from 1974 until his death, among his closest friends, with writers, theatre artists and his wife Olga, as well as Czech and international politicians. For more than 60 years, Bohdan Holomíček’s images have been not only a unique document of historical events, but above all an intimate chronicle of the lives of the people he has encountered. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that Bohdan Holomíček can be described as a singular natural phenomenon. More