An interview with Josef Rauvolf, the man who brought Beat literature and underground culture in the Czech Republic

by Antonio Baroni

Between the pristine white walls of DOX gallery, people are waiting for the lecture while monotonous noise comes out of a player. Already a hint of warholian style, I guess (the lecture is indeed part of the exhibition Ghosts of Bohemia, about Andy Warhol and other members of his Factory).

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Ocean vs Daughter

an informal chat with Flanna Sheridan

by Antonio Baroni

When you hear Flanna Sheridan's sweet and velvety voice opposed to the waterfall of vigorous piano-raindrops and the colourful, warm and thunderous violin and cello flows, suddenly the mysterious name of the band makes sense: their music is like a wide expanse of water that can be sometimes quiet and sometimes stormy, nevertheless the sound is always clean, defined, and it's not hard to imagine Flanna as one of the Nereids, the nymphs that accompanied Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.

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Werner Herzog is a German cinema legend, and yet he has received little recognition in his home country in recent years. Now the director is finally back in Germany, where he is heading the jury at this year's Berlin International Film Festival. As usual, the maverick filmmaker is doing things his way.

Original article by Lars-Olav Beier, from Der Spiegel.

Photo: Corbis.

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Researchers in the evolving field of neuroesthetics seek to determine what happens in the cerebral cortex when we see art—and, in the process, figure out what makes great works so mesmerizing

by Ann Landi

Original article from Artnews.com

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Attention: some conservative people might

have been intentionally harmed

during this show.

By Kevin Calonne

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Original article by Stephen Delbos, Prague Post online

Anthology of 20th-century Czech poets translates many the country's best into English for first time

Great poetry anthologies are rare, but not for a lack of great poems. Any sampling of poets is only as strong as the sum of its parts, but, to be more than just a grouping of varied talents, a poetry anthology must also be a work of selective criticism.

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Žižkov International Photography Festival - Dec. 3rd - 22nd

It is back. Yes, the ZIP Fest will back in Žižkov this winter. This is a community event, meaning any one can show some photos.

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By Whitney Highum

What: I have no mouth - I must scream

Exhibition featuring international artists such as: Zbigniew Libera (PL), Avdej Ter-Oganjan (RU), Václav Magid (RU), Milan Kozelka (CZ)

Where: Galerie Truhla, Truhlářská 11

I went to this opening with no expectations, and still managed to be disappointed.  Descending into the bunker-like backroom basement of an inauspicious doorway, I have to admit my interest peaked. 

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Original article by Philip Heijmans, Prague Post online

The Czech Press Photo exhibition opens for the 15th consecutive year, showing the best images from the news and beyond from the past 12 months

Sometimes, the straight approach pays off.

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Original article by Charlotte Higgins, The Guardian

Amsterdam's red light district has landed in the National Gallery, London – and it's not pretty.

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By Natasha Kirshina
 

    Masked villains stealing ancient masterpieces for their Sicilian mafia boss...is this the image an "art crime" inspires in your mind? Or perhaps it's a collage of headline-smashing thefts - like the recent disappearance of Andy Warhol’s Athletes silk-screens from a museum in California. But is that really the whole range of art crime’s colours or just its varnished surface?

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Original article by Philip Heijmans, Prague Post online

Prague will host a plethora of comic artists and exhibitions over the next two weeks as internationally renowned graphic artists including Max Andersson (Sweden), David Rubin (Spain) and Nick Abadzis (UK), gather for the fourth annual KomiksFEST! Held in more than 15 locations throughout the city, the many exhibits, panel discussions, book signings, films and lectures (most of which are in English this year) are designed not only to celebrate and promote an art form, but to demonstrate that, despite the popular sterotype, comics are not just for kids.

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Normal Festival 2009

Sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Culture, this year's Normal Festival features art for and by people who live with learning disabilities.  Often unable to succeed in school, these artists have found a means of self-expression through elements ranging from film, to performance, to photography.  Featured works include; A Little Different Theatre from Poland, a documentary film called Die Heide ruft from Germany, large format photographs of the actors of Theatre Inventura by Martin Mařák and much more.  There will also be workshops with slam poet Bohdan Blahovec.  So come support the artists and experience art by people for whom life is often more challenging, but who thrive in creative endeavors,  artistic and moral support.

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Asian Women's Film Festival, 15/10

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Festival of Lights, 14-25 October

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Original article by Stephan Delbos, Prague Post online

Translation of Pavel Šrut makes us look at ourselves

Paper Shoes is the first collection of Pavel Šrut's poetry available in English, and is just hitting the bookshelves of Prague bookstores. Essentially a book of selected poems wonderfully translated by the young Czech-American Ema Katrovas, the book samples nearly 50 years of Šrut's work, including a group of poems originally published in samizdat form under Communism.

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Original article by Prague Post

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the World Press Photo exhibition must be worth a million or so, and most of them on par with the best from Shakespeare.

The exhibition returns to Prague's Karolinum this year and runs through Oct. 11.

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... your gods failed. Our will be done!

PREMIERE 29th and 30 SEPTEMBER

in Meetfactory / Ke Sklárně 15, Prague 5 /

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Hi there, we are  Fřesh Fľesh and our toys are for both boys and girls! Choking hazard exists. Come play with us from 20:00 till morning this Saturday

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Original article by James Walling, Prague Post online

Plzeň theater fest returns with English subtitles

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Original article by Julie Kirby, BBC NEWS online

For decades Irish-based writers, musicians and visual artists have been exempt from paying income tax on their earnings under the Republic's tax laws.

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'1st September 1939' is the date on which the story could have been changed forever, in which humanity could have become lost in the darkness of Nazism, intolerance, radicalization, extermination and hatred. Fortunately, the joint effort of many nations stopped this impending night, but the conflict left a deep wound that even now remains gaping. Exhibits such as 'Against Hatred' can help heal the wound.

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Original article by Natalia O'Hara, Prague Post online

A photo exhibit kicks off the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and places events in a larger context

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Two minds, two creations, two worldviews in a single exposure…This is ‘The Known World' exhibition, which will open next Wednesday, September 2nd in Karlin Studios/Entrance Gallery.

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Picture from Prague Post

Original article by James Walling

It has long been commonplace for ambitious directors to restage Shakespeare in modern dress, adapting the setting to "breathe life" into aging works that are thought to be inaccessible or impractical to produce as originally written. As a result, it's difficult to find productions of Shakespeare plays that haven't been meddled with in some way.

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So Much More / gallery

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Original article and photos by The Local online

Ninety years after it began revolutionising design, and six decades after the Nazis banned it, Germany's famed Bauhaus movement is luring huge crowds to a new show in Berlin.

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Original article from The Local online

Berlin’s S-Bahn chaos has created a Cockaigne for graffiti artists as the lack of rail traffic opens up a whole new canvas for taggers, daily Der Tagesspiegel reported on Wednesday.

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Original article by Mimi Fronczak Rogers, Prague Post online

Four artists who buck the tide of European tradition.

An undercurrent typically flows in the opposite direction of surface currents, so the selection of two Czech and two German artists by Petr Nedoma for Galerie Rudolfinum's show "Undercurrent" can be seen as an attempt to showcase work that in some way goes against the grain of tradition, and the mainstream of contemporary art. It also hints at the pull these counter-tides might have on prevailing contemporary currents, given the right conditions.

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Armando Andrade Tuleda @ DAAD Galerie, Berlin

When: 9.07 - 29.08

Where: DAAD Galerie, Berlin

Zimmerstr. 90/91
10117 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 261 36 40
open Monday - Saturday:
11am - 6pm

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In preparation for the party at the 15th century Burg Sommeregg Castle during the weeklong body painting festival in Seeboden, Austria, we had the possibility to become personally adorned with dazzling colors. We were intrigued as to how these artists practise their art and manage to survive. So in the hopes of having the experience of becoming ambulant art pieces, we asked around and bartered an interview for a painting. We were lucky to come to an agreement with Marcel Klaus’s team of Bergheim, Germany. I had to abandon my typically prude nature and strip down to my little short shorts to be air brushed by the artist. With the help of Katerine Hoeper, assistant and seemingly right hand girl, I had the privilege of conducting a quick interview:

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“O tempora! O mores! Serbians have sex appeal, Austrians are tough, French still don’t know how to kiss (in teaching process)”. After a long trip throughout Europe, our international MC Ka is back in town, more inspired, more energetic, and refreshed.

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P: How did you learn so much about this piece?

Š: Sometimes I play that I am a dictator so I study the maps of countries.

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P: How did you learn so much about this piece?

Š: Sometimes I play that I am a dictator so I study the maps of countries.

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"I would so totally "do" David Černý...." blow bubble, pop [gum], suck in with teeth, "like who wouldn't?" -Moon Unit Zappa, Valley Girl era

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The Syrian poet Ali Ahmed Said Esber - known to readers as Adonis - traces the fault line between the Arab and Western worlds with his pen, attempting "to give a new image to what we call the Arab world, and to create a new way of seeing our contemporary world," he says.

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Prague College is pleased to announce its 4th HND Graphic Design Graduation Show, which will be held in Doubner Gallery Václavské náměstí 15 between June 18th and June 21st 2009.

We would like to invite you to the Opening on June 18th at 18:00.

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Damien Hirst's life and art are a fitting reflection of his times

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DOX Nano

5.6 – 9.7

LOCATION: DOX Centre for Contemporary Art

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PRAGUE BIENNALE 4 / PRAGUE BIENNALE PHOTO 1 @ Karlin Hall

May 14 — July 26, 2009

Karlin Hall, Thamova 8, Prague 8

PRAGUE BIENNALE 4

Polymorphous, multifaceted, multicultural and in continuous dialogue with itself as well as with its audience; these are the

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by Alex Jordan

Handa Gote research & development
Prepared by: Švábová, Smolík, Procházka, Mikeš, Kropáček, Hybler, Freudl, Dörner
Produced by: Jedefrau.org

(60 min.: no language barrier)

Production of ALFRED VE DVOŘE theatre @ Studio ALT@ - Hall 30
U výstaviště 11, Prague 7
30 and 31 March | 8 pm |
http://www.altart.cz/
www.alfredvedvore.cz
www.myspace.com/handagote

HANDA GOTE research and development is a conceptual post-dramatic theatre whose array of instruments merges sound installations, motion and dance theatre, live music, creative theatre and technology. Their work is influenced by minimalism, eastern philosophy and the DIY movement. They combine Czech Do-It-Yourself skills with the recycling of objects and technologies, together with inspiration from the Japanese haiku. The trademark of their creativity is alternative work with the space itself where, by using various common objects and their theatre technique, they create a peculiar version of stage design. The inspiration of the authors often lies beyond the boundaries of theatre, crossing into the world of science and technology. The documentary aspect of the performance is often the base for contemplative stage images. Handa Gote means a soldering machine in Japanese.

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by Kate Pinto

Folke Köbberling (de) & Martin Kaltwasser (de) + Miklós Mécs (at)
Exhibition guests: Jan Jaroslav Sterec (cz), Carbusters Magazine, Auto*Mat

@ MeetFactory, Ke Sklárně 15, Praha 5
28.02.09 - 29.03.09 wed-sun | 15.00-20.00

www.meetfactory.cz
www.folkekoebberling.de
http://mecsmiki.blogspot.com
http://www.carbusters.org/
http://www.auto-mat.cz 

The urban space as an experimental canvas choice has been the emphasis of Köbberling and Kaltwasser's artistic activities for the past ten years. Through their pieces they approach questions such as city life in the context of privatization, commercial interests and economic concerns and how this affects sustained development.

By developing installations, exhibits and interventions in urban spaces, they focus on topics concerning the public sphere, such as surveillance tactics, illegality and self-organization. They achieve it by transforming it into practical examples of temporary use and informal methods as well as to show possibilities for its enlivenment and repossession.

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by Alex Henderson
image: Self Portrait by Tom Deininger

One man's trash is another man's yadda yadda yadda.

We all know this. Any two-bit high schooler with a garage full of crap can turn a junkyard into a showroom. What's the key, then, to creating something actually interesting out of a pile of garbage? The following artists' work sheds some light on that mystery:

Tim Noble and Sue Webster are a live-in couple out of England who stick bits and scraps of trash together in ways that initially seem to make no sense, until you turn on the light. Then -- voila! -- the formless junk heaps project a shadow on the nearby wall of something recognizable and compelling. Often the couple's art ends up casting an image of themselves in various poses but it shouldn't take long to spot the silhouettes of old men and bicycles being cast by cast-aside materials. If you're like me, it will seem like magic at first. But don't spend too much time pondering -- there's lots more to see.

Try googling German artist HA Shult, a man who makes people out of pure rubbish -- kind of like the opposite of a celebrity reality TV show. His work has appeared all around the world, usually in big cities or at famous historial landmarks. Basically, he takes old Walkmans and Coke cans, crushes them together, and births a new trash person. (He obviously doesn't do it alone -- imagine being one of the interns that lines his sculptures up at the Great Wall of China.) You can also watch a video of Shult on YouTube that features just a bit too much man-on-trash PDA for me. But you might like it.

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by Kate Pinto
photos by Aroa Tapetado

Are you an enthusiast for urban culture and in particular, street art?

Someone for whom galleries seem more like an up scale version of a clothes store where everything looks the same and is over priced, and who often goes to museums and would like to have a more relaxed and intimate experience with the art piece (instead of constantly having distractions, such as someone looking over your shoulder or worse still, someone in front of you, blocking your field of vision)?

Well, we might just have an alternative that will please you; Guerrilla Galleries.

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by Alex Jordan

Art For Life - a benefit auction

1.12. 2008 6 p.m. in The Chemistry Gallery - exhibition and auction of modern artworks

December 1st is World Aids Day - i.e today. But if you didn't know, had forgotten or simply couldn't be bothered, there's still something you can do to raise awareness of HIV and Aids and lend your support....

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