Current Affairs Vaclav Havel Library moves to new location in Prague’s Old Town
The Vaclav Havel Library was established two years ago, as an attempt to build an institution similar to presidential libraries in the United States, and is essentially a collection of the former president’s works in the various stages of his life – dissident, playwright, president. However its organizers want it to be more than just a collection of dusty books and papers. The library has now moved to a new location - Gallery Montmartre in Prague’s Old Town and its director Martin C. Putna says there are big plans ahead:
Photo: CTK
“The reason for this move was the need for more space which would enable
a broad scale of activities–workshops, conferences, small exhibitions and
programmes for children. When I say we want learning programmes for
children I do not mean giving them a sum of facts, books and papers by
Vaclav Havel. Primarily we want to teach them constructive thinking, we
want them to think critically about Czech history, about freedom and
democracy, to compare the past and present and to think critically about
the author (Vaclav Havel).”
Photo: CTK
How does Mr. Havel himself like the Vaclav Havel Library and is he himself
involved in any of these activities?
“Well, Mr. Havel’s health is far from ideal and although we invite him every time we are never absolutely sure if he will turn up.”
Does the library portray the president in a human light as well? I understand there is a lighthearted side to it.
“Yes. we are trying to create something different from the usual
memorial. We do not want a mausoleum for a living person. Therefore the
exhibition is full of little jokes at the expense of Vaclav Havel. I stress
that this is kind humour, we do not want to exceed the limits. But we know
that he likes to turn the irony upon himself – he is ironic when
commenting on his dissident years, his presidency and his passions and we
tried to imitate him in this. 
Photo: CTK
So for instance, you will find in the library
a collection of Mr. Havel’s books in Czech and a variety of foreign
languages. But alongside his real books we placed a collection of books he
never wrote, but could well have written– we simply invented a collection
of ironic titles such as: Cooking for Charter 77, Cooking for Dogs, Cooking
Dogs, Women Volume I, Women Volume II, etc, etc.”
And how did Mr. Havel like that? Was he amused?
“Well, he has not seen it yet, because at the opening he was not feeling well enough to come. But I hope that in the next few days I will be able to show him the exhibit and I am pretty sure he will laugh.”
For more information on the Vaclav Havel Library please go to :
www.vaclavhavel-knihovna.org
