Czech Centres to commemorate 10th anniversary of Václav Havel’s death this autumn

The Czech Centres network will commemorate the 10 year anniversary since President Václav Havel’s death this autumn, the organisation announced on its website on Tuesday.

The majority of the programme, including a new project called “Reading Havel”, will be organised in cooperation with the Václav Havel library.  A panel exhibition called Václav Havel: Politics and conscience (Václav Havel: Politika a svědomí) will be shown in Czech Centres in Poland, Russia and Spain.

The Czech Centre in Warsaw is also hosting film screenings related to the topic of the first president of the Czech Republic as well as discussions with dissidents.

The Czech Centre in Milan has prepared an exhibition of Havel photographs made by photographer Tomki Němec and special mural dedicated to the president, which was created by Czech street artist David Strauzz. A reading of Michael Žantovsky’s Havel biography, newly translated into Italian, will also take place.

The Czech Centre in Tel Aviv is set to remember Václav Havel through the photographs of Jiří Jírů.

The Czech Centre in Athens has helped set up a “Václav Havel bench” in the Greek capital.

The Czech Centre in Madrid will organise a colloquium on the future of democracy that takes into account the spiritual legacy of Václav Havel.

Screenings of “Havel”, director Slávek Horák’s 2020 biopic which deals with the life of the Czech president, will take place in Vienna, Budapest, Rotterdam, Munich, Rome and Jerusalem.

Writer, dissident and dramatist Václav Havel was the central figure in the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ended communist rule in Czechoslovakia. He then served as both the last Czechoslovak and first Czech President. Havel died at the age of 75 on December 18, 2011