Václav Havel commemorations shape up for 2016

The Václav Havel Library, along with the Václav Havel Foundation and the Art for Amnesty – Amnesty International are holding a number of events throughout the year to mark what would have been the ex-president’s 80th birthday. I spoke to the head of Václav Havel Library and Havel biographer, Michael Žantovský, about the events, but I first asked him whether he thought that the presence of Václav Havel was still being missed in his homeland:

Václav Havel, photo: Filip Jandourek

“We at the Václav Havel Library are remembering him on a daily basis, because I do believe that his legacy is very important for people today.

"The best evidence of that is our nightly events in the library to which a large number of young people are coming every night and are intensely interested in the legacy and its impact on today. And the same holds for people in other places and other countries.”

You are organizing a number of events throughout the year and you have already launched one of the projects, called ‘Hey, it’s Havel’. Can you tell me more about it?

“Yes, it is a crowd-funding project and it’s basically our idea of a birthday present for Václav Havel. It will consist of hitherto unknown pictures and photos of Václav Havel that ordinary people, non-professional photographers took of Havel as he went through his life and presidency.

“We have already collected a number of such pictures, some of them are very funny and very nice and more of them are coming in every day. We intend to publish the best of those photographs as a birthday present for Václav Havel.”

Can you highlight at least some of the other events that will take place throughout 2016?

“Some of them will be our regular events, the Václav Havel Prize for Human Rights Conference that we hold every year together with the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe and the Charter 77 Foundation.

Michael Žantovský, photo: Petr Novák, CC 3.0

"Then there is the Václav Havel European Dialogues in May which will focus on the topical issues and current event in the EU, and our regular series of readings, presentations, seminars and debates on human rights, civil society and civic responsibility issues.

“We have just published the electronic edition of Václav Havel’s collected works. And we will hold a number of exhibitions and events with Czech Centres in about 20 countries of the world commemorating Václav Havel at his 80th [birthday] and the list is far from complete.”

You can follow all the events as they take place throughout the year on a special website, which is www.havel80.cz or check the Facebook and Twitter accounts dedicated to the special project.