Biblioteka Raczyńskich in Poznań has curated a wide-ranging programme of Czech culture this October. The Czech Culture Days will take place across several of the city's cultural and academic venues from 5th to 23rd of October.
The programme brings together literature, architecture, photography, theatre, film and discussions, with events taking place at Biblioteka Raczyńskich, UAM's Collegium Maius, Muzeum Literackie Henryka Sienkiewicza, Aula Artis and Barak Kultury.
Literature is one of the main themes
Biblioteka Raczyńskich will host a meeting with contemporary Czech writer Petra Dvořáková, whose books include "Vrány" (Crows) and "Já jsem hlad" (I am hunger). Later in the programme, Muzeum Literackie Henryka Sienkiewicza will welcome journalist and writer Aleksander Kaczorowski for a discussion about his new biography of Milan Kundera.
The programme also looks at some of the political and historical figures who shaped twentieth-century Czech and Central European history. A meeting with historian and diplomat Andrzej Krawczyk will focus on Edvard Beneš, examining his political choices and their consequences for Czechoslovakia and the wider region.
Exhibitions provide another strand
Biblioteka Raczyńskich will present an exhibition titled "Od Brukseli do brutalizmu. Brno i Morawy" (From Brussels to brutalism). The exhibition explores the development of Brno architecture following the international exhibition in Brussels and looks at buildings including Janáček Theatre, Hotel International and the Lesná Polyclinic.
At UAM's Collegium Maius, the focus turns to Václav Havel. A photography exhibition by Ondřej Němec documents Havel between 1976 and 2011, offering glimpses of the future president as a dissident, writer and politician as well as in his personal surroundings.
Havel also features in a series of events at the university, including a lecture by Czech Ambassador Břetislav Dančák followed by readings from Havel's work. Students of Slavic studies will perform "Odcházení" (Leaving), based on Havel's play and translated into Polish by Andrzej S. Jagodziński. A separate exhibition throughout Collegium Maius will present extracts from Havel's writings and speeches on subjects including freedom, responsibility and democracy.
There is a more personal and difficult historical story at the centre of "Dziennik Věrki" (Věrka's Diary), an exhibition about Věrka Kohnová, a Jewish girl from Plzeň. Created by illustrator Kamila Pokorná and historian Jiří Sankot, the exhibition combines illustrations with archival material from Kohnová's diary and traces the final months of her life before her deportation.
Comics, theatre and film
Contemporary Czech visual culture also appears in a programme devoted to comics. Comic historian and curator Tomáš Prokůpek will discuss the relationship between comics, advertising and visual communication, alongside a presentation of modern Czech comic art.
Theatre will bring another distinctly Czech perspective to Poznań. Teatr Wojart will stage Mirko Stieber's "Pan tu wróci" (You will come back) at Aula Artis, a story set at a Czech railway station in the 1970s, followed later in the month by Jakub Zindulka's "Teściowe wiecznie żywe" (Immortal mothers-in-law), which follows a young couple trying to build a life together under the watchful eye of their mothers.
The programme finishes with one of Czech culture's best-known characters. Barak Kultury will host a screening of the silent film Dobrý voják Švejk, accompanied by live music.
See more: Poznań's Roman Cieślewicz Collection Opens to the World Online
Source: Biblioteka Raczyńskich
