Arts | All stories

Prague’s Letensky park this month sees the return of the annual two week Letní Letná festival of contemporary circus, now in it’s ninth year. The festivities kicked off on Sunday with events showcasing the best contemporary circus has to offer, from puppet shows and performances with soap bubbles in the afternoon to dazzling big top spectacles in the evening. I spoke to Jiří Sedlák, one of the festival organizers, and asked him what the original idea behind the festival was.

Czech painter Hynek Martinec has been living in London ever since he made a breakthrough there with his painting Zuzana in Paris Studio. The hyper-realistic portrait of Hynek’s girlfriend won in 2007 the prestigious BP Young Artist Award. A native of the eastern Bohemian town Broumov, Hynek Martinec will soon rerurn to the Czech Republic. In October, the 32-year-old artist will be featured in an exhibition of contemporary British painting entitled Beyond Reality, along with Damien Hirst, Ben Johnson, Keith Tyson, and other artists. RP spoke to Hynek

In this week’s Arts I my guest is Jana Fantová, the head of komiksfest which returns in October and the curator of an on-going exhibition at a 19th century chateau in East Bohemia. Entitled 13 Chambers of Comics, the exhibition highlights works by some of the country’s best graphic novel illustrators and artists.

In this week’s Arts my guest is Czech Photo’s Daniela Mrázková, the curator of an exhibition marking 10 years since the 2002 floods that devastated Prague and other parts of the Czech Republic. Based on an earlier show of works by some of the country’s best photographers, the exhibition is also accompanied by a brand-new book.

In this week’s Arts I talk to Markéta Stará of the DOX Gallery about the retrospective of work by one of the greatest 20th century Czech artists Karel Nepraš. The show, features many of Nepraš’ famous metal works but also drawings and work in porcelain, is highly recommended.

In today’s Arts my guests are American actor and producer Brian Caspe (who is also the artistic director of the Prague Playhouse) and Czech actress Veronika Bellová just two of many in the cast & crew involved in a new English-language production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The show which lasts through July and has already gotten great reviews.

Today’s guest in the Arts is Czech-German composer and conductor Rudolf Mazač, who heads a big band orchestra dedicated to the works of Stan Kenton and other jazz greats. In 2004, Rudi Mazač founded Jazzový most (or Jazz Bridge) a festival bringing together international musicians in selected towns and cities in the Czech Republic and Germany. The festival returns to Prague next month. In our interview Rudi talks about line up this year as well as the initial idea behind the long-running project.

The Semafor theatre, one of the oldest continuous traditions of modern Czech entertainment, is still putting out new performances after 53 years of existence. The latest concoction of multi-genre comedy theatre is ‘Kam se poděla Valerie?’, or ‘Where Did Valerie Go?’, which has four pre-premieres this week and next, before the real premiere in September.

A high-profile court case between well-known Czech photographer Jan Saudek (77) and saudek.com – a company represented by his son Samuel and former girlfriend Sára Saudková – wrapped up this week with Prague’s high court ruling in the photographer’s favour.

This Friday sees the opening of a new exhibition of new work in glass by Czech, Slovak and Austrian artists. The work is going on view at the Horácká Gallery in Nové Město na Moravě. The work was produced at the AGS Glassworks near Žďár nad Sázavou, located in the Czech-Moravia highlands, at this year’s International Glass Symposium.