In Focus | All stories

Two Czech journalists, Jarmila Štuková and Lenka Klicperová, recently returned from a working trip to Iraq and Syria. Their mission was to document the situation of refugees in the war-stricken region in order to drum up support for a humanitarian aid project run by the Czech branch of the Catholic charity Caritas. I spoke to one the reporters, Lenka Klicperová, just a few days upon her return to the Czech Republic, and I first asked her about the project itself:

Karolína Světlá is one of the greatest female writers of the 19th century, yet in recent years, her works have somewhat fallen out of fashion. A group of people from the Footprints in nature non-profit organisation are trying to change that. Last year, they established an educational trail dedicated to the great writer and this weekend, they are holding the first-ever Karolína Světlá festival.

A new exhibition located in the upper part of Prague’s Wenceslas Square is displaying dozens of large format photos depicting the square’s golden era, which is in sharp contrast with its present state. What was once a living city boulevard has in the course of past decades turned into a rather unpleasant and crowded street with fast food venues, which locals try to avoid if they can. Ruth Frankova has more in this week’s In Focus:

The annual Anifilm festival of animated film kicks off in the South Bohemian town of Třeboň on Tuesday. Over the next six days, hundreds of films, as well as music videos and animated commercials will be screened in numerous venues all over the town. The original festival, Anifest, was founded in 2002 and changed into Anifilm last year.

Walking around Prague these days, you can often come across bright pink bikes parked in the streets. Most of these radiant bicycles belong to Rekola, a non-profit organisation operating a bike sharing scheme in Prague and a number of other cities around the country. The mobile application enables anyone with a smartphone to find the nearest bike and, for a small charge, enjoy a ride through the city.

With the arrival of spring, fruit trees across the Czech Republic have started to bloom, promising to yield a rich harvest in the months to come. For those who don’t own a patch of land but would still like to experience the pleasure of picking fruit rather than shopping for it in the supermarket, there is a new initiative called Na Ovoce – Fruit Picking. The website, which was launched just a few weeks ago, maps the occurrence of accessible wild fruit trees, shrubs and herbs that grow around the country.

The guerrilla art group Ztohoven, known for their controversial projects and often operating in anonymity, have made a somewhat surprising move. At the end of last year, they opened an official institution, a so-called institute of crypto-anarchy. Situated in a former factory building in Holešovice, the Paralelní Polis or parallel world will serve as a hacker space, a hub and a bitcoin café. According to its founders, it will offer the public a possibility to “step out of the system”

The Czech Academy of Sciences this year marks 125 years since its establishment. The country’s largest research institution will celebrate the anniversary with a series of events that will take place throughout the whole year. One of the highlights of these celebrations so far was a video mapping on the Academy’s headquarters that took place last week.

People passing by náměstí Míru in Prague these days may have come across a strange pipe-like structure protruding from the ground. Though it looks like it might have been left there by workers, it is in fact the world’s first ever poetry jukebox, the so-called Poesiomat, invented by café owner and idea maker Ondřej Kobza. In this edition of In Focus, Ruth Fraňková went to have a look at it:

For years, comics was considered a lowbrow genre and was neglected or even banned during the Communist years. Recently, however, the situation has changed with new, talented authors emerging, and it seems that comics has finally become a respected part of Czech culture.