The great singer and dissident Marta Kubišová – who many Czechs associate with key moments in the country’s modern history – turns 80 on November 1. Singer Marta learned to sing listening to Radio Luxembourg with her brother and tried to play hits on the piano by such artists as Elvis Presley and The Beatles. She had a knack for phrasing lyrics in Czech and a unique, original, distinct color to her voice with the ability to convey emotions when she sang. In 1961, Marta participated in her first talent show called The Search for Talent, reaching the finals. At her audition at the theater in Pardubice, she caught the eye of composer and future Supraphon producer Bohuslav Ondřáček. She went on to sing with the Alfa Theatre for one season before signing a contract with the prestigious Rokoko Theatre in Prague. There, she performed with Czechoslovak superstar Waldemar Matuška as well as Helena Vondráčková and Václav Neckar, who later became part of her trio. At the Rokoko theatre, Marta, Helena and Václav performed in a new musical called Waiting for Fame, which brought them instant success. Marta’s first solo album Songy a Balady was released in 1969, and re-released...
By: Abigail Calandra – Anglo-American University “Power(less)” or “(Ne)Moc” in Czech at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague’s Holešovice neighborhood is an exhibition that combines works of contemporary and art brut artists offering unique perspectives on power and on mental illness. In Czech, “nemoc” translates to illness or sickness whereas “(ne)moc” means powerless and the exhibition seeks to explore these two central themes by featuring art brut artists. Art brut (“raw art”), or outsider art, is often intertwined with mental illness and it originated in psychiatric wards, as art projects by the patients. These outsiders create art out of a compulsive need— often secretly—rather than following the current trends of contemporary art. One of the exhibition’s three curators Otto Urban says there were several layers behind the creation of “Power(less).” Notably, the curators have sought to explore the themes of power and powerlessness and also to combine contemporary art with art brut in a way that required viewers to question which field the artworks came from. “We still believe that art has its specific power, not to change the world…but to point to certain questions, and certain problems,” said Urban. The extensive exhibition opens with a wall installation of...
“Prague is built of stone and lime being the largest city considering trade, from the royal city came the Russians and Slavs with goods and from the Turkish countries the Muslims and Jews with their merchandise”. With these words written in the year 965, the traveler and Arab-Jewish merchant, Ibrahim Ibn Yaqub, offers us one of the first historical testimonies of the Jewish presence in Prague. However, this record does not answer an important question: for how long the People of Patriarchs have been living in this city? Our guide Berschowitz showed us in the Jewish cemetery in Žižkov, the tomb of the famous rabbi and philosopher Ezekiel Landau, who lived during 1713-1793, and we were told about the long and dramatic history of this community, one of the oldest in Europe. Going back in time and retracing the history of the Praguian Jews is a difficult task because the historical truth shortly blends with the oral tradition, inevitably crossing over the vague and uncertain territory of legends. According to one of the many various stories, the visionary queen Libuše prophesied the arrival of a foreign people in Bohemia as being a favorable event that would have brought good to...
Several Prague landmarks will celebrate the Oct. 28 holiday by offering free admission or having guided tours. Czech Senate The Senate offers a tour of its main building – the Valdstein Palace (Valdštejnské náměstí 17/4, Malá Strana) and the Kolovratský palác, (Nerudova 193/III, Malá Strana). Both sites will be open from 09:00 to 16:00. Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament (Poslanecká sněmovna) The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament also opens its doors to visitors. During the hour-long guided tour, guests will be able to see the main meeting room, conference rooms of various committees and other areas. Tours will begin as groups are formed. Where: Malostranské náměstí č.19 When: 09:00 to 16:00 Lichtenštejnský palác Guests will be able to explore the rich interior of the Liechtenstein Palace on Kampa Island, now used for state events and accommodation of prominent political figures. Where: Lichtenštejnský palác, U Sovových mlýnů 506/4 , Prague 1 When: the guides will be waiting for guests from 09:00 till 17:00 (the last guided tour will start at 16:00). The tour will last about 40 minutes. Obecní dům This building is inextricably linked with the upcoming holiday. It was here that Czechoslovakia’s independence...
On 24th October 1942, Nazis executed 261 Czechoslovakian citizens in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Out of this number, 126 were men and 135 women. Whole families of parachutists, resistance fighters and their supporters died on that day. This was one of the most terrifying Nazi revenge similar to the assassinations in Lidice, Ležáky and Kobylisy, or tortures that went on in the Small Fortress Terezín, or in Petschkov Palace etc. “Everyone knows soldiers Gabčík and Kubiše, who killed Heydrich, but those who paid with their lives for helping them are almost unknown,” said Mikuláš Kroupa, who is the director of Post Bellum. The victims were mostly entire families, including children aged 14-17. They were taken to Mauthausen concentration camp from Terezín and murdered on October 24, 1942. In the room where they were sent for a supposed medical examination, they were made to stand with their backs to a wall marked with a height meter. They were then shot with a bullet to the back of the head through a hidden hole in the wall. The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 eliminated one of the most powerful military officers in Nazi Germany and an important figure in the rise...
Charles Bridge Museum together with the City of Prague is holding St. Martin’s celebrations on Thursday 11th November. The celebration will start at 11.11 am. On this day, Czechs traditionally roast a goose and at exactly 11:11 they open the first bottles of young wine, which are called St. Martin’s (Svatomartinské víno). St. Martin was a Roman Catholic saint, the bishop of Tours, who lived in the years 316 – 397. The most-repeated story about his life says that while he was a soldier, he encountered a scantily dressed beggar at the gate of the city of Amiens. He cut his military woolen cloak in half and shared it with the freezing man. The following night he had a vision of Jesus Christ, surrounded by Angels, and arrayed in the half of the cloak. As a consequence of the experience, he received baptism, left the army and became a monk. People in the Czech republic associate the feast with the onset of winter and snow. There are a lot of proverbs in Czech, which feature predictions for the winter weather. According to the most popular saying, the first snowfall of the season can be expected on this day since Martin may...
A uniting wall. Visited by millions of curious people every year in Prague, the Lennon Wall arrived in Paris today. On Thursday, October 20, and Friday 21, 2022, the Lennon Wall comes to the Pantheon, in Paris 5th arrondissement. As part of the Czech Presidency of the EU Council, 27 artists from the European Union (including French Anaëlle Bouard) and two special guests from Ukraine (Viktoriia Savchuk) and Norway (Pippip Ferner) have been invited to create a mural themed on liberty and energy on the famous Lennon Wall in Prague. After a day’s work, the 29 artists created a large work of art of 35 x 5 meters. Once the artists concluded their work on the Lennon Wall in Prague, it was photographed and printed on an inflatable wall of the same size (35 x 5 metres). The replica was earlier unveiled in front of the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, and is now on display –for two days – at the Place du Panthéon, in Paris. Pavel Štastný says he added a special feature: The project is also meant to highlight the EU motto “United in Diversity”. Behind this cultural project titled “Wall of Freedom and Energy / Lennon Wall Prague” stands Czech artist Pavel Šťastný. “This...
After 25 years, the prestigious Strings of Autumn Festival in Prague has renamed itself to Prague Sounds, yet in its newest form, it is still a festival without limits to genre. Only from now, it won’t be limited to only one season of the year. Prague Sounds The Festival in 2022 kicks off on October 23 with Snarky Puppy, a jubilant jazz-fusion big-band originally from Denton, Texas. They are a multicultural phenomenon also influenced by gospel and rhythm & blues; they’ve just won a Grammy (2021) for “Live at Royal Albert Hall” for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. On Sunday the 23rd, they’ll be at Lucerna Grand Ballroom. Other outstanding artist-musicians invited to Prague Sounds which runs till November 24th include Chris Thile, the Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble, the all-star Redman/Mehldau/McBride/Blade jazz quartet, Makaya McCraven, Laura Mvula, and Nils Frahm. Chris Thile is an American mandolin virtuoso from The Punch Brothers. He will be performing a solo recital of acoustic music from Bach to bluegrass and the blues at La Fabrika on Monday, Oct. 24th. The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble from Berlin are an acoustic-classical trio or troupe of musicians recreating without electronics the deep house and minimalist techno music they...
The history of Czechoslovak LSD is one of the greatest phenomena of the second half of the 20th century. How come for almost a quarter of a century, in a communist state, thousands of people, including many popular artists such as Karel Gott, were able to use psychedelic drugs entirely legally? In the autumn of 1952 several young psychiatrists in Prague ingested for the first time a mysterious substance that had been sent from a laboratory in Basel. This is how the Czechoslovak adventure with LSD began. The substance arrived in Prague in an entirely legal way. A standard shipment from the pharmaceutical company Sandoz was sent to Dr Jiří Roubíček, an associate professor at the Faculty of Psychiatry at the Medical University of Prague. It contained ampoules with an oily, transparent substance described as ‘lysergic acid diethylamide’, a substance first synthesized in 1938 by the Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann. Initially considered useless, LSD attracted the attention of the company owners after Hoffman accidentally tested its effects on himself on 19th April 1943. Four years later, the first study summarizing the results of LSD tests involving healthy volunteers and patients in psychiatric hospitals was released. The article was attached to the parcel...
Prague City Gallery on October 12 started the European premiere of the Taylor Camp collection of photographs at the Stone Bell House on Old Town Square. Visitors have the opportunity to see the life in a Hawaiian community that had no laws or rules, yet was united by a desire for freedom. John Wehrheim has won two Emmy Awards for his collection of photographs and documentary film on Bhutan. “Diverse subcultures are an essential part of any democratic society. This important American photographer will be presented in the Czech Republic for the first time. Through its focus on the hippie movement, the exhibition also aims at raising awareness of the need to strengthen civil society,” says Martin Řezníček, one of the three exhibition curators. “The life for people at Taylor Camp represented going beyond utopia – living in harmony with nature with a sense of freedom, tolerance and sustainability, which are themes that are gaining in importance and relevance today,” adds the exhibition curator Adam Ligas. Since its destruction by government officials in 1977, the Taylor Camp settlement on the Hawaiian island of Kauai has become a social phenomenon and, like the famous Woodstock festival, a memento of its time...
Día de Muertos is a holiday full of colour, skeletons, dancing, music and good cheer. This tradition is so culturally rich and exceptional that UNESCO included it in the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. You can enjoy the Mexican Souls on 25 and 26 October at the Klementinum Gallery. There will be a traditional floral altar, guided tours and if you come themed, you can even take part in the Miss Catrina election. History of Day of the Dead The ancient indigenous people of Mexico have practiced rituals celebrating the lives of past ancestors for around 3,000 years. The celebration that is now known as Day of the Dead originally landed on the ninth month of the Aztec calendar and was observed for the entire month. In the 20th century, the month long festivities were condensed to 3 days called The Days of the Dead: Halloween on October 31, Day of the Innocents on November 1, and Day of the Dead on November 2. La Catrina is one of the most recognizable figures of Day of the Dead, a towering female skeleton with vibrant make up and a flamboyant feathery hat. The Lady of Death...
The National Gallery in Prague will open up Veletržní palác (Trade Fair Palace), Schwarzenberg Palace, Sternberg Palace, and Convent of St. Agnes for free on October 28, 2022. From 10:00 to 18:00, you will be able to visit four branches of the National Gallery in Prague for free. The action is timed to coincide with Independent Czechoslovak State Day. The following exhibitions are actually undergoing: Old Masters I (Schwarzenberg Palace) Old Masters II (Sternberg Palace) Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe 1200-1550 (Convent of St. Agnes) 1796-1918: The Art of a Long Century (Veletržní palác) 1918-1938: First Republic (Veletržní palác) History – what you need to know To understand the origin and importance of 28 October, we need to go back to the end of WWI. During the year of 1918, the guarantee was gained that the Triple Entente countries would accept the future Czechoslovakia as a sovereign state. This unique position among the former Austria-Hungary states made the official creation of Czechoslovakia a swift process from there on, and on 28 October it was established in Geneva that a new republic with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk as president has just emerged. As soon as the news got to Prague, the public was...
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