Events: October 2014
September 2014
November 2014
Human Rights 25 Years Later
October 1, 2014, 08:30
An international conference in honour of the winner of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize attended by representatives of this year’s finalists, the Israeli non-profit organization B’Tselem, Malta’s Jesuit Refugee Service and the Azerbaijani human rights defender Anar Mammadli (more information on other page). Among those also taking part in the conference will be the winner of the first edition of the prize, the dissident Ales Bialiatski, North Korean exile Shin Dong-hyuk and Crimean Tartar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev. More
An evening with Shin Dong-hyuk: A window into North Korean death camps
October 2, 2014, 19:00
Shin Dong-hyuk was born in a labour camp (Camp 14, Kaechon, Total Control Zone). He escaped and dedicated his life to bearing witness to how people are born and die in the camps. “I think I am still evolving – from an animal to a human,” he says in his book Escape from Camp 14, which he wrote with journalist Blaine Harden and which became a worldwide bestseller. More
Havel’s place, Hradec Králové
October 4, 2014, 11:00
Another Havel’s Place memorial is to be unveiled in honour of Václav Havel, who would have reached the age of 78 on 5 October, in Hradec Králové, a city that hosts the Theatre of the European Regions international theatre festival. More
Challenges, paradoxes, plays... And Václav Havel’s Pantomime too
October 6, 2014, 19:00
“Perpetual motion, or seven days of Mr. A” This virtually unknown libretto of a pantomime, authored by Václav Havel, was created in spring 1989 at the request of friends in prison. A copy of the letter to Olga Havlová in which the writer included the libretto is preserved in the archive of the Václav Havel Library. The text has been studied by artists and teachers form the Department of Pantomime at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The evening is being held to mark the occasion of what would have been Václav Havel’s birthday. More
Germany as a World Power: with Power comes Responsibility
October 7, 2014, 14:00
Presentation of a study "New Power, New Responsibility" jointly prepared by Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) and German Marshall Fund. The discussion with Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller (from the German Marshall Fund) and Lenka Pítrová (Director of Strategies and Institutional Department, Office of the Government of the Czech Republic) will be moderated by Jan Macháček, journalist and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Václav Havel Library. More
Petr Mano presents Šarlák
October 7, 2014, 19:00
Author and visual artist Petr Mano will read from his prose collection Šarlák. The author of the literary event of the year describes 12 different jobs that he held over a 12-year period. More
Memory of Dissent I: Zdeněk Bárta – Dissent in the countryside
October 8, 2014, 10:00
The lecture series Memory of Dissent is organised by the Historical Sociology department at Charles University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Václav Havel Library and headed by sociologist Nicolas Maslowski.
New Wave director Pavel Juráček remembered
October 8, 2014, 19:00
An evening dedicated to one of the key figures of the New Wave of Czechoslovak cinematography in the 1960s, a close friend of Václav Havel’s, author of now legendary Diaries (Book of the Year in a Lidové noviny poll in 2004), and an artist persecuted by the regime who died a mere six months before 17 November 1989. More
25 Years of Respekt
October 9, 2014, 19:00
A one-off evening to mark a quarter of century of existence of Respekt attended by deputy of editor-in-chief Petr Třešňák and other important figures (e.g. Sylvie Lauder, Jáchym Topol, Tomáš Brolík a Milan Jaroše) from the weekly’s past and present. The evening will be hosted by journalist Tomáš Sacher.
Democracy in Today's Russia, interview with Khodorkovsky
October 13, 2014, 17:45
After a promising period in the ‘90s, when Russia seemed to be working towards a liberal political system, there was a major turn. The process of political regression finds its expression in the person of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the best known prisoner of conscience in the history of modern Russia. More
Imperfect Democracy: Václav Havel's Concerns about the Development of Democracy
October 14, 2014, 17:30
A panel discussion on Václav Havel's legacy and on his vision of the future of democracy. Introduced by Marta Smolíková, Director of the Václav Havel Library, moderated by Tomáš Vrba, Chairman of the Forum 2000 Board of Directors. The panelists are John Shattuck, President and Rector, Central European University, Hungary/USA; Jan Macháček, journalist and Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Václav Havel Library, and Michael Žantovský, Ambassador to the United Kingdom. More
The Society for a Merrier Present
October 15, 2014, 19:00
Continuation of a year-long series from the archives of the Václav Havel Library on the emergence and activities of civic initiatives in the breakthrough year of 1989. Jáchym Topol will host a debate with movement founder Bára Štěpánová. More
Social inequality and economic prosperity
October 16, 2014, 18:00
For the most part economics talks about wealth creation, a “cake” to be divided among inhabitants, companies and state functioning in the framework of a given economy. However, the current crisis has shifted attention to the distribution, respectively the redistribution, of resources. Is it necessary to consider how much particular people can bite out of the whole cake? More
Václav Havel Library at Autumn Book Fair
17/10/14 – 18/10/14 Participation on local events
The Václav Havel Library will be represented at the 23rd Autumn Book Fair in Havlíčkův Brod by Gabriela Romanová, Tereza Johanidesová and Pavel Hájek. A discussion with readers, a reading of excerpts, and a presentation of the VHL archive and programme will take place.
Shared Space – the Creation of the City as Dialogue III
October 20, 2014, 19:00
A series of popularising evenings focused on the main paradigms in the creation of cities in the 21st century. A moderated interview with distinctive figures selected according to the principle of complementary opposites. Two different fields, two different perspectives on the city, both relevant and important for the creation of the city. The third evening in the series will be given over to a dialogue between an architect and a developer. More
Memory and Dissent II: Jan Ruml
October 22, 2014, 10:00
The lecture series Memory of Dissent is organised by the Historical Sociology department at Charles University’s Faculty of Humanities and the Václav Havel Library and headed by sociologist Nicolas Maslowski.
The Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted
October 22, 2014, 19:00
How the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted arose, how it worked, who created it, who it defended and how the trial of its members went. The Committee was founded by a group of Charter 77 signatories in 1978. Among other activities, its members provided legal, financial and other aid to political prisoners and filed requests for redress with the Czechoslovak authorities. More
Life in the Gulag
October 23, 2014, 19:00
Presentation of Walter Ciszek’s book S Bohem v Rusku (A Farewell in Russia), the gripping testimony of a Jesuit priest who was arrested in Poland after the outbreak of WWII and imprisoned by the Soviet regime for over 20 years. It was not until 1963 that he was exchanged for a Soviet agent and allowed to travel to the US. More
Evening on 75th annivesary of First Transport of European Jews
October 24, 2014, 18:00
On 18 October 1939, the first transport of Jews in the history of the Holocaust was dispatched from Ostrava, organised by Adolf Eichmann. It was headed for Nisko. The deportees were forced to build a camp that was to be a destination for further transports. More
The Unknown Milena Jesenská
October 27, 2014, 19:00
An evening dedicated to Milena Jesenská, writer, journalist, translator, femme fatale, provocateur, fashionable cosmopolitan, mother, anti-Nazi fighter and prisoner. More
Havel’s Place in Plzeň
October 30, 2014, 15:00
Another memorial in honour of Václav Havel is being unveiled in Plzeň, which has been named a European Capital of Culture 2015. More
Staged Reading: Unveiling
October 30, 2014, 19:00
Another of Havel’s one-act plays, Unveiling, will launch a series of staged readings in the new season. Dissident writer Vaněk again faces the paradoxes of Czechoslovak reality in the totalitarian period. A play about superficiality, snobbism and human vacuity. More
Sitting Russia
October 31, 2014, 19:00
A meeting and discussion with Olga Romanova, a blogger in the informal Sitting Russia group, which brings together relatives, friends and acquaintances of the unjustly imprisoned; it also provides information about those who are unjustly prosecuted and on the Russian prison system and justice, which are not just familiar to the members of Pussy Riot. Chaired by Rostislav Volvoda. In cooperation with the Kulturus festival.