Havel ALIVE festival to celebrate late president's legacy at Prague Castle
Among the events marking the 90th anniversary of Václav Havel’s birth in October will be the festival Havel ALIVE. Taking place at Prague Castle, it will showcase theatre, film, design and music connected to the late democracy leader.
The venue for Havel ALIVE will be the Prague Castle complex, and the head of the Office of the President, Milan Vašina, explains the thinking behind the festival.
“I think it’s important to somehow remind ourselves and our people about his important messages and values, regarding freedom, regarding democracy, regarding humanity.”
Havel ALIVE will deliver a broad spectrum of arts events at various venues in Hradčany, including the grand Riding School, where it was presented to the media on Wednesday.
Veronika Wolf is Prague Castle’s culture and programme director.
“It’s difficult to choose one [event]. Nevertheless, we are very happy that we managed to find the original library of Václav Havel, and we will show it here in an exhibition. Also what is extremely unique is that there will be a premiere of a play written by Václav Havel. This play was kind of hidden and unfinished, and we collaborated with Dejvické Divadlo, which is a very important theatre here in Prague. They managed to, let’s say, finish it up and the premiere of this new play will be here at Prague Castle.”
The “original library” referred to is actually a bookcase created by Havel’s designer friend Bořek Šípek for the head of state’s study. Recognisable to many who remember this part of the world in the 1990s, it is being displayed as part of the annual DesignBlok festival, which overlaps with Havel ALIVE in October.
The head of Prague’s top design event, Jana Zielinski, says the iconic piece and the president’s desk are being borrowed from the owners of a castle in Moravia. They bought the furniture when Havel’s old office was remodelled under Václav Klaus – and some “detective work” was needed to track it down.
“It will be the first time that the public will have the opportunity to see it. I’m very happy that we succeeded. We put this exhibition together in a short period of time and we knew that the library was crucial, because it was a symbol of Bořek Šípek’s work in collaboration with Václav Havel. And we saw [on television] all the speeches that were given by Václav Havel with this library in the background.”
The festival is also set to include an online component in which visitors can peruse some of the items – such as gifts from foreign dignitaries – that Václav Havel acquired during nearly 13 years as head of state. Havel ALIVE will run from October 4 until January 14.
