Arts news, Exhibition on Czech Musicians

In this week's Arts, Dita Asiedu looks at some of the developments on the Czech cultural scene and talks to a Foreign Ministry representative about a travelling exhibition that presents four of the country's finest musicians to the world.

Arts news, Exhibition on Czech Musicians

Lucnica in Prague

The Slovak ensemble Lucnica, one of the most renowned in the area of folklore and traditional Slovak dance art, is currently in Prague and will be performing its piece named "Karpaty" or Carpathians at the Municipal Building until Sunday January 4. Lucnica has been active since 1948 and has become the Slovak Ministry of Culture's prime contribution to Central European art. It is currently made up of 18 pairs of dancers and a choir of 50 singers. During its 54-year history, it has been arranging great performances of Slovak dances, songs, and music with beautiful traditional costumes that have stunned audiences around the world. The young dancers excel in their unique technique and true passion, which is complimented by virtuosic musicians, including the 12-membered band Diabolic Violins. Its skills have been admired by audiences in more than 60 countries in five continents.

Beowulf finally out in Czech

Czechs can finally admire the oldest surviving epic in British literature, Beowulf, as it has finally been published in Czech and can now be purchased in bookstores for 470 Czech crowns. The Old English copy of Beowulf, which exists in only one manuscript and can be found at the British Library in London, was written sometime before the tenth century AD. It describes the heroic adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior named Beowulf in the sixth century.

Exhibition commemorates the 140th anniversary of the Umelecka Beseda

Logo of the Umelecka Beseda

The City Gallery Prague has opened an exhibition at the Municipal Library and the Old Town Hall called Umelecka Beseda 1863-2003. The Jubilee or Artists' Union, which was founded on 9 March 1863 to become the first Czech association bringing closer three areas of art - music, literature and drama and the fine arts, and focusing on the development of cultural life. It oversaw the protection of threatened artistic monuments, acquired memorial plaques, distributed membership bonuses and organized exhibitions of paintings by foreign artists. It also played a major role in the construction of the National Theatre. The exhibition in the Municipal Library is divided into three parts: a retrospective, from the founding of the Union to the end of the 19th century, an exhibition of works from 1900 to the end of the 1960s, and contemporary work, from the Union's rebirth after the fall of communism to 2003. In the Old Town Hall lies another part of the exhibition that is devoted to two fields of art - photography and printing- as well as documented material on the activities of the Artists' Union throughout the 140 years. Famous Czech artists including Josef Manes, Karel Purkyne, Antonin Chittusi, Mikolas Ales, Jakub Schikaneder, Frantisek Bilek, and Jan Zrzavy are all represented in the exhibition, which closes on February 1.

Foreign Ministry plans travelling exhibition presenting Czech musicians

Leos Janacek

And finally in this week's Arts. 2004 has been designated as the Year of Czech Music and will be marked with concerts, seminars, and discussions around the country throughout the year. But many of you listening to us outside the Czech Republic will be pleased to hear that the Czech Foreign Ministry has been working on an exhibition that will introduce some of the country's best and finest musicians to the world. To find out more, I spoke to Zdenek Lycka, head of the Foreign Ministry's department for cultural relations and Czechs living abroad:

"Our department, the cultural relations department which is also responsible for Czechs living abroad, is preparing a travelling exhibition, which is called Three Personalities of Czech Music - Smetana, Dvorak, and Janacek. This exhibition will be presented in two language versions, an English one and a Spanish one. The English one will be presented in the United States and Canada, where Dvorak especially is well known, and there will be a big presentation in Spill Ville in Iowa, where Dvorak spent a nice summer in 1893 and composed two of his works there. Then, we've prepared a Spanish version, which will be presented in several Latin American countries through our embassies and it will be shown in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago, and Lima. The English version, except for [besides] the United States and Canada, will be presented in Belgrade, Milan, Rome, La Valetta, Tel Aviv, Zagreb, Oslo, Teheran, and Tokyo."

We have many listeners in Japan who love Czech classical music. Can you tell us what visitors will find at the exhibition?

"We are planning to have eight panels. One will be the front panel describing the exhibition and the members of the official committee and also a few words about Czech music, what it is, where it comes from, and where it's going to go in the future. Then we have two panels for each personality - Smetana, Dvorak, and Janacek. The last panel will be prepared for the places that are connected with those personalities. The panels are self-standing panels that are about two metres high and eighty centimetres wide and they have their own lighting. So, this exhibition is very flexible, is easily movable, and can be placed at the entrances of city halls, concert halls and so on. It is also not necessary to have a special guide to monitor the exhibition because the security is not a big problem and it will have the newest technology. We already had a good experience with this kind of an exhibition. We prepared one called Secrets and Mysteries of the Czech Republic and this exhibition was shown with great success in many countries all over the world so we decided to use the same technology for the Three Personalities of Czech Music exhibition."

How long will each exhibition be open?

"It will depend on the co-operating embassy or Czech Centre. I think it's important to have an opening concert together with the exhibition and then have it for two or three weeks before it continues elsewhere. It is not strictly controlled and depends on the others who are cuing."