Events: February 2017
January 2017
March 2017
Markéta Pilátová: Czechs in the Jungle
February 1, 2017, 17:00
While the Communists were building a dictatorship in the Czech lands, in the Brazilian jungle Jan Antonín Baťa was building new Zlíns. Markéta Pilátová’s novel S Baťou v džungli (In the Jungle with Baťa) recounts the little-known stories of Czech émigrés in South America. The narrator is Jan Antonín Baťa himself, who returns from the grave in order to tell his own story as it actually was, not as it was painted by Communist propaganda and historians. He doesn’t just recall his closest collaborators and advisors, such as Hugo Vavrečka, but even attends the funeral of Václav Havel. The ghost of Jan Antonín Baťa writes poetry and is unwilling to leave this world until he has found justice. More
Rudolf Barta: The Hands of the Prison Clock
February 2, 2017, 19:00
Rudolf Barta comes from a family that has produced a number of important entrepreneurs, inventors and scientists. He himself emigrated in 1968, first to Germany and later to the US. For him the attraction wasn’t career but the joy of living in the free world. After initially working for the British Army he later scraped along in a life of adventure or earned a living as a butler or trader… and along the way he encountered countless big names from the worlds of cinema, media and politics. More
A Czech Divorce from the West?
February 7, 2017, 19:00
“Europe is no longer the conductor of the global orchestra. But this does not mean it has played out its role and has nothing to say to the world any more.” (Václav Havel, Aachen, 1996) More
Perpetuum Mobile, or 7 Days of Mr. A
February 8, 2017, 19:00
Václav Havel wrote the mime libretto Perpetuum Mobile aneb 7 Dní Pana A (Perpetuum Mobile, or 7 Days of Mr. A) while in custody in spring 1989. Despite its silent absurd grotesque stylisation, the piece reflects authentic aspects of prison life as well as following, in a heightened style, the cycle of hope and despair in the actions of an innocent prisoner. More
Libuše Jarcovjáková: The Black Years
February 9, 2017, 19:00
Libuše Jarcovjáková, the enfant terrible of Czech photography, is publishing her work in book form for the first time. Černé roky (The Black Years) comprises raw photos and literary diaries from the period 1971–1987. The book distills the black and white ordinariness of normalisation Prague, revealing both the beauty and decay of that period, as well as providing an insight into the remarkable later life of an émigré in West Berlin and Tokyo. More
Rr at GASK
February 11, 2017, 18:00
A trrragicomedy about 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. Afterrr yearrrs of silence, the Václav Havel Library decided to brrring it to life officially. More
Religious People – What is Behind Polish Catholicism?
February 16, 2017, 19:00
The label “society with a strong religious influence” ranks among the most common Czech perceptions of Poland. Viewing Poland through Catholicism has a long tradition here, dating back at least to Masaryk’s day. What is the source of this by European standards unique connection of national identity and religion, of the typical equation of “Pole” and “Catholic”? More
Vratislav Brabenec: Unsolicited Contribution
February 20, 2017, 19:00
Meeting with Vratislav Brabenec, patriarch of the underground, poet, musician and signatory of Charter 77. More
Inequality in Education: Myth or Reality?
February 21, 2017, 19:00
In international studies the Czech Republic ranks among countries where pupils’ and students’ results are closely tied to their socio-economic backgrounds. Does everybody in the Czech Republic have the same right to education and the same chance of succeeding in the education system? Is Czech education heading toward a deepening of inequality? Or is it instead gradually doing away with it? More
Evenings with Polish Reporters VII: Christians in the Middle East
February 23, 2017, 19:00
Christianity was born in a region which we today refer to as the Middle East, one of the most volatile areas in the contemporary world. What is life like for people who profess the Christian faith in Iraq, Egypt, Turkey or Lebanon? More
A Step into the Dark Night
February 27, 2017, 19:00
Sixty-seven years ago, on 25 February 1950 the Číhošť parish priest Josef Toufar was murdered by StB officers. A story filled with disturbing questions and dramatic circumstances, in recent years it has returned as a compelling testimony. Who was Josef Toufar and who were his torturers? What can the Vysočina country priest tell today’s world? And what was president Gottwald’s role in that monstrous charade? More
Arsemid
February 28, 2017, 19:00
Ivan M. Havel wrote the novel Arsemid exactly 60 years ago, though it was only published in book form in the 1990s. Who is Arsemid? There is no clear answer, though we could do worse than search for one in the spiritual zone somewhere between Franz Kafka, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ladislav Klíma and Christian Morgenstern. More