2013-09-27T16:18:17+02:00 Radio Prague http://radio.cz/en/section/arts/international-festival-of-outdoor-films-begins-in-ostrava urn:uuid:e112f3e9-e1ce-5d83-b2e0-cb5aca7288ce 2013-09-27T16:18:17+02:00

This Friday sees the start of the International Festival of Outdoor Films in Ostrava, the largest festival of its kind in the Czech Republic focussing on adventure, travel and extreme sports. This year, the travelling festival will visit a total of 43 towns and cities in the Czech Republic, neighbouring Slovakia and also Russia.

urn:uuid:25fd000f-2927-50d2-a4ea-2dc23316440a 2013-09-13T15:43:42+02:00

Thursday saw the opening of a small international film festival called Water, Sea & the Oceans in Hluboká nad Vltavou in South Bohemia. In its tenth inception, it is dedicated to undersea adventure and underwater life. Steve Lichtag, a diver and award-winning filmmaker who has made documentaries about everything from Great Whites to endangered crawdads, is the festival’s founder and president; I spoke to him about the event’s history and aims.

urn:uuid:0f5c4f0d-f940-5cb8-a1b2-c8087e49fc9e 2013-09-06T15:34:09+02:00

It’s not every film student that gets his premiere at the International film festival in Berlin, to be sure, but such was the fortune of Olmo Omerzu, a FAMU graduate from Ljubljana, Slovenia, and our guest in this week’s Arts. His graduate film called A Night Too Young (Příliš mladá noc) had its world premiere in the Forum section of the Berlinale, which generally selects highly original, highly provocative works. A Night Too Young is both of those things: a story of a party of three consternated adults, shared by two twelve-year-old boys, who have no idea that they are about to grow up fast. We met with Olmo Omerzu this week, on the occasion of the film’s domestic premiere, and asked him first of all about his Czech connection came to be.

urn:uuid:802fc680-376f-5bc8-bdfd-5b5b861d581e 2013-08-30T15:54:06+02:00

Originally from Bratislava, architect Barbara Bencová found a home in Prague quite a few years ago. But in the 30 years of her life, she has also had a chance to study in work in the major European centers of design and architecture. Having tried out remodeling flats, luxury interior design, student housing, Barbara has gained international success this year with a design of a kindergarten in Milan.

urn:uuid:e636be2e-fb68-5e47-b6aa-774f70c2c487 2013-08-23T15:55:20+02:00

This week the 45th anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia was commemorated in this country. What some may not realize is that many of the iconic images from the tumultuous August of 1968 appearing in the media belong to one person – Josef Koudelka. A world renowned photographer whose career spans almost six decades and across all of Europe, Mr. Koudelka decided six years ago that he wants his life’s work to have a home in the Czech Republic.

urn:uuid:b5854b9f-08f4-5c94-a9a6-6efcf0eab412 2013-08-16T13:54:22+02:00

The cemetery in the small South Bohemian town of Volyně hides an unusual secret – a contemporary art gallery called Na shledanou, or Goodbye. Actually, the secret is not that well kept, since for the past three years the gallery’s curator Jan Freiberg has been inviting well-known and up-and-coming Czech artists to use the funeral home’s walls and beautifully lit space to create site-specific works. Visitors from the surrounding region and from far beyond come to experience the unusually located gallery. On a recent visit to Prague, Jan Freiberg spoke to Radio Prague and told us how the Goodbye Gallery found a home at Volyně’s cemetery.

urn:uuid:4befe5bb-0777-517c-84d1-00aad9cb327a 2013-08-09T16:40:13+02:00

Entering the small, cozy space of FotoGrafic Gallery in Prague’s Old Town, I was struck by the glossy picture-perfect photographs of dashing ladies catching a few rays next to spacious cars, a family on an idyllic picnic, youngsters showing off in front of shiny motorbikes – all images of prosperity and consumerism. One would hardly believe that these were images of 1960’s Czechoslovakia and not America, but all of these works are indeed creations of the once legendary Czech photographer and mountaineer Vilém Heckel, who brought a first-republic gleam to commercial photography in communist Czechoslovakia.

urn:uuid:6f2cd21d-4109-51f2-83e2-ea8e1e688c0d 2013-08-02T16:47:06+02:00

For 12 years Peter Freestone was a personal assistant and close friend to Freddie Mercury, the singer who reached superstardom with the rock group Queen. He was also there during the singer’s last days in 1991. Since the start of the Noughties, Freestone has lived in the Czech Republic. I contacted him this week after it was confirmed that Queen will release three tracks that time forgot which Mercury recorded with Michael Jackson, a recording at which Freestone was present.

urn:uuid:ad55f054-b019-5b5e-a043-38bcd4231e2a 2013-07-19T16:17:06+02:00

The Czech Centre London has prepared a special Czech Dance Showcase for the upcoming Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The showcase will present three highly acclaimed Czech contemporary dance groups, giving them a chance to show their stuff at the largest arts festival in the world. During her recent visit to Prague, I had a chance to speak to the director of Czech Centre London, Tereza Porybná, and began by asking her why they specifically chose contemporary dance as a medium to present Czech culture at the festival.

urn:uuid:93e4bf86-72e5-5af9-9065-6f944c793697 2013-07-12T15:18:24+02:00

Clowns, puppeteers, acrobats, mimes and many other striking, colorful and often frightening street artists will take over Prague’s center on Monday as part of the annual street theater festival Behind the Door (Za dveřmi). Around twenty troupes from more than 15 different countries will be performing next week in the afternoons and evenings in the heart of Prague, at Wenceslas Square. It will be the fifth year of Behind the Door, and for this week’s Arts, Masha Volynsky had a chance to speak to a member of the festival team, Adam Ondráček, about what special performances the festival is featuring this year.

urn:uuid:20ea942d-eb5b-58da-8c97-e10dba0af5e2 2013-06-21T16:49:33+02:00

In today’s Arts my guest is the Berlin-based Canadian artist Rebecca Halls who goes by the stage name of Beka Hoop. Next week, Rebecca launches the second ever Hoopurbia, bringing together hoop dance performers from around the world. The first inception was held in industrial parts of Berlin; how will Prague compare?

urn:uuid:98618019-9c89-503e-9987-59ee577a3c97 2013-06-14T14:52:14+02:00

Musician Tomáš Kelar’s career began as drummer with the Welsh band Mountaineers, who rubbed shoulders with some big names when they signed to Mute Records. Now living back home in the Czech Republic, Kelar is a member of the highly regarded electronic group Midi Lidi and also produces the female rappers Čokovoko.

urn:uuid:2f37e0d1-cb48-52a8-a944-753dc8b0b79a 2013-06-07T15:45:53+02:00

News from the finale of the 53rd Zlín International Film Festival last weekend was largely dampened by fears of devastating floods in other parts of the country. Now that the flood-waters have begun to recede, and life slowly begins getting back to normal, we take a last look back at this year’s fest – including the film that won and an annual festival-related auction.

urn:uuid:b9d40f6b-d2a6-58bf-b4c1-634af9e0d664 2013-05-31T00:00:00+02:00

Divadlo Hurvínka a Spejbla – the theater of Hurvínek and Spejbl – has been a favorite destination for children in Prague for the past 65 years. It is home to the country’s most popular puppets, father Spejbl and his son Hurvínek. The Dejvice theater just returned to its original location that was closed down for two years due to renovation. Sarah Borufka visited the new space and even met the voice behind the puppets.

urn:uuid:53200ae8-6d1d-577e-85b5-cea80bd12f6e 2013-05-24T16:00:25+02:00

The 12th annual Prague Fringe Festival begins on Friday evening in the Czech capital. As always, the fest offers a wide range of theatre from all around the world. Prague-based playwright Stuart Mentha, who had success with his debut Déjà Vu last year is also back. Friday sees the premiere of his new play ‘False Friends’. He told me more about it at Czech Radio this week.

urn:uuid:b9157a89-4c84-5f60-b88b-b50029bee2bd 2013-05-17T15:56:48+02:00

It’s no secret that American writer Robert Fulghum loves the Czech Republic and that his books, published by Argo, have proven immensely popular here. He has been back at least ten times over the years to promote his work, from his famous All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten to his latest, Memories of One Adventure.

urn:uuid:5569583b-1494-53db-bd68-06eba9eac199 2013-05-03T16:24:56+02:00

My guest in today’s Arts is violinist Josef Špaček, who has emerged as one of the Czech Republic’s most talented virtuosos. Špaček – a graduate from the Juilliard School – is a concertmaster with the Czech Philharmonic and in less than a fortnight he will be performing at the Prague Spring International Music Festival. He has also just released his debut CD with recordings of Prokofiev, Janáček and Smetana.

urn:uuid:f1cc6975-0520-5d25-a28e-5010dadb2917 2013-04-26T15:51:29+02:00

The Czech Photo Gallery at Prague’s Újezd this week launched the first in a series of “Best of” exhibitions beginning with the Nude. Curators for the opening show chose work by five well-known photographers, the late Taras Kuščynskyj, Jan Saudek, Robert Vano, Pavel Brunclík and Antonín Tesař. The nudes range from lyrical and romantic, to erotic and homoerotic, and relatively brutal and decadent.

urn:uuid:d5ec7773-d339-57af-b008-dc574af1b091 2013-04-19T15:51:55+02:00

In this week’s Arts I talk to Jitka Hanušová of Art for Public, collaborating on an upcoming exhibition at the GASK Gallery in Kutná Hora, central Bohemia. The show, entitled “Venice - the Eternal Dream”, opens next week, featuring work by Italian photographer Maria Pia Severi and Venetian Carnevale masks from the traditional Pietro Longhi atelier.

urn:uuid:3d693d5b-9585-5cf4-9fbd-c74c33c63ec9 2013-04-12T16:33:27+02:00

In this week’s Arts my guest is New York-based landscape architect Martin Barry who last year launched a new festival and conference in Prague called reSITE, focussing on urbanism and rethinking the public space. To this aim, he and organisers involved everyone from internationally recognised designers and urban planners, to students of arts and architecture, and last, but not least, politicians.