Arts | All stories

In this week’s Arts, our guest is up-and-coming Czech artist Jindřich Janíček, recent graduate of UPMRUM (Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design), co-founder of the small independent publishing house Take Take Take, and co-author of K večeru spustil se déšť (The Rain Started at Dusk). The book, which Janíček illustrated, is based on diaries kept by his great-grandfather Štepán Zadražil, who served in the Austrian army in WWI and deserted in Russia.

The Letní Letná festival of New Circus is back and well underway in the Czech capital. One of the headlining acts this year is LIMBO, a production which has gotten rave reviews, was reportedly seen by Madonna (twice) and, not surprisingly, has sold out. I was lucky to meet up in the Spiegeltent with troupe member Mikael Bres who told me all about the show, described as Heaven can wait – this is one hell of a party.

Pavel Fuksa is a highly respected graphic designer and creative director who this week, together with City Hall, unveiled new posters addressing various changes in the capital, including the sidewalk ban on Segways. Fuksa has worked everywhere from Japan to the Middle East and in 2012 he was included on a list of the 20 Best Young Graphic Designers by Computer Arts. He has also done work for the Obama administration, as you’ll find out.

At the beginning of September, Czech Television will begin broadcasting a new 12-part series called “I, Mattoni”, inspired by the life and times of late 19th century businessman and industrialist Heinrich von Mattoni.

Contemporary or New Circus has become far better established in the Czech Republic over the years thanks to the hugely popular annual festival Letní Letná (which returns in just a few weeks) and local troupes like La Putyka. But what you might not know is that there is also a centre for contemporary circus in Prague you can visit all year long, called Cirqueon. The centre strives not only to inform about New Circus but takes part in productions and offers youngsters the chance to learn gymnastic and theatrical skills.

This Friday sees the start of one of the oldest festivals in Europe celebrating amateur theatre in Hronov close to the Polish border. The festival is dedicated to the great writer Alois Jirásek, who was born there. Although his plays have since fallen out of fashion, some troupes still take a crack at his work every so often; more importantly, over the course of ten days, visitors get to see some of the best in amateur theatre from the year all in one place.

Karlovy Vary’s Hotel Thermal was recently, as it regularly is, the backdrop for Central Europe’s biggest film festival. The complex was designed, outside and in, specifically for the film festival in the West Bohemian spa town. But the controversial 1970s architectural work of the husband and wife team of Vladimír Machonin and Věra Machoninová is showing its age with its owner, the state, blowing hot and cold about its future. That has prompted the granddaughter and grandson of the architects to step in.

The Czech Centre in Prague is currently hosting a seminar and workshop for the winners of this year’s Susanna Roth Translating Competition. Organised by Czech Centres around Europe in cooperation with the Literary Section of the Arts and Theatre Institute, the competition is open to young translators up to 40 years of age who haven’t yet published a complete work of literature. This year, they were required to translate an extract from a novel by Anna Bolavá, called Do Tmy or Into the Dark. I caught up with one of the winners, Paddy Phillips.

A new production entitled Here is Here is getting a lot of attention for its combination of genres from social to documentary theatre. Performed at three buildings of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the tour lasts an hour-and-a-half and makes use of both historical fact and fiction.

Puppeteers’ Chrudim (Loutkářská Chrudim), one of the longest-running puppetry festivals in the world, is just around the corner. Held in the town of Chrudim, east of Prgaue it begins next week for the 65th time.