This panel discussion explores how architecture shapes our sense of belonging, not only by providing shelter, but by structuring everyday life, community, identity and place.

Using the Baťa village at East Tilbury as a starting point, the conversation looks at how modernist ideals, industrial ambition and carefully planned communities created a distinctive model of living. The discussion connects the historical story of Baťa company towns with wider questions of architecture, development, memory and belonging today.

The panel features historian Milan Balaban, who situates East Tilbury within the global network of Baťa cities; architectural historian Gillian Darley OBE, who reflects on the village’s significance within British modernism; John Purkiss from the Bata Heritage Centre, who brings a local and heritage perspective on East Tilbury’s development and legacy; and architect Ondřej Chybík, who discusses contemporary lessons for urban planning and adaptive reuse.

The discussion is chaired by Sir John Tusa, British arts administrator, author, journalist and former BBC broadcaster, whose personal connection to East Tilbury brings an especially meaningful perspective to the conversation.

Together, the speakers explore how architecture, industry and community planning can shape not only places, but also the people who live, work and belong within them.

Speakers: Sir John Tusa, Gillian Darley OBE, Milan Balaban, John Purkiss and Ondřej Chybík
Recorded: 11 June 2026
Venue: Czech Embassy Cinema, London
Organiser: Czech Centre London
Event: Designed to Belong: Modernism, Industry and Community
Part of: London Festival of Architecture

Over the last three decades, the Central European countries have experienced some of the fastest economic growths in the world. The region has joined the ranks of highly developed countries, and its citizens are wealthier and living longer than ever before. In Czechia, this transformation was closely tied to the democratic ideals articulated by Václav Havel, whose vision of an open society and civic responsibility shaped the country’s path during the early years of transition. Yet, within a generation, Central Europe has also moved from being one of the most egalitarian regions in Europe to one of the most unequal. This indicates that the growth has not benefited all equally. What are the sources of the Central European miracle, and who are its main beneficiaries? What are the consequences of the increasing inequalities for these societies, especially in the context of growing political polarisation? How can we ensure that future growth in the region will be inclusive? 

The event will be moderated by Jessie Barton Hronešová and will feature an esteemed panel of speakers, including Zsoka Koczan, Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Lubomír Lízal, economist and former director of CERGE-EI, Prague, Pawel Bukowski, co-director of the new Research Center for the Study of Places, Identities, and Memories (PIMs), and a word of welcome by Přemysl Pela, the director of the Czech Center in London.

About the speakers:

Zsoka Koczan is Associate Director, Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. At the EBRD, she edits the Regional Economic Prospects, which review the latest economic developments in the EBRD regions, works on the Transition Report, EBRD’s annual flagship publication, and runs the Life in Transition Survey, a large household survey covering 44 economies. Prior to joining the EBRD, she worked as an economist at the International Monetary Fund in the European and the Research Departments, primarily on the World Economic Outlook. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge

Paweł Bukowski is a Lecturer in Economics at the University College London and the Polish Academy of Sciences. Also affiliated with the London School of Economics. He is a Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Places, Identities and Memories (PIMs) at UCL. His research focuses on socio-economic inequalities and labour economics. He has won multiple international research grants, founded an expert group – Dobrobyt na Pokolenia and is a member of Concilium Civitas - a group of influential Polish social scientists working abroad. His book, “Inequalities a’la Polonaise”, won the Puls Biznesu Scientific Economics Book of the Year 2024 and the Marcin Król Prize 2025, given for a significant contribution to the humanities and social sciences. 

Lubomír Lízal has been a member of the Czech National Bank Board in 2011-2017; the Board is bank governing body and monetary policy committee. Since 1993 he has worked as a researcher at the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 2003–2008 he has been Director of both the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences and CERGE, Charles University. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University, and other scientific boards. He was a member of the National Economic Council of the Government. In years 2018-2019 he has served as the President of the Anglo-American University in Prague. Currently he is an associate professor at the Czech Technical University and at the University of Finance and Administration.
Mr Lízal graduated at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University. In 1998 he obtained a PhD in economics at CERGE, Charles University and in 2006 he qualified as an associate professor in economics at Charles University. In his research he has focused on transition and environmental economics, recently also on energy economics.

Jessie Barton Hronešová is a Lecturer in Political Sociology at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL, and Co-Director of the Centre for Study of Places, Identities and Memories. In her work, she focuses on victimhood narratives, the politics of memory, transitional justice and dealing with the past in Central and Southeast Europe. She is particularly interested in the political uses of emotionally charged and traumatic memories as well as how victims and survivors navigate politics. She is the author of The Struggle of Redress: Victim Capital in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2020) and Post-War Ethno-National Identities of Young People in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2012) and co-editor of The Nexus between Democracy, Collective Identity Formation, and EU Enlargement (2011). From 2019 to 2021 she was the ESRC Postdoctoral research Fellow at the University of Oxford and then a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at UNC Chapel Hill and Ca' Foscari. Outside of academia, she is a frequent policy advisor and consultant in international development in Central and Southeast Europe.

Přemysl Pela is the Director of the Czech Centre London and the Programme Director of Czechia EXPO 2025 in Osaka. Premysl has served as the Director of the Czech Center in New York and worked for, among others, the Charles University's CERGE-EI Institute and the Czech Academy of Sciences. In the private sector, he has held various international top managerial roles. He also headed the Strategy and Innovation Department at the Czech Centre's HQ in Prague and developed innovative projects presenting scientific creativity through advanced digital technology. He holds graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Ostrava University and has completed academic and professional programmes in New York University, Michigan University and the Civil Management College in London.

More information:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/vaclav-havel-european-dialogues-2025

#vaclavhaveldialogues #inequality #centraleurope

Silent Systems: Breathing Devices at Vitrínka and Breathing with Breaths – Air Bladders at Bouda run until 16 January and are part of the 29th Made in Prague Festival. Listen to our newest episode and take a glimpse into what’s awaiting you in the Czech Centre London’s galleries!

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/silent-objects-breathing-devices

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/breaths-air-bladders

#(when)arttalks #filomenaborecka #breathsairbladders #silentsystemsbreathingdevices #madeinpraguefestival

Join us for a compelling evening with historian and anthropologist Daniela Grollová Spenser, as she discusses her new book Echoes of Exile: A Family’s Odyssey through the Holocaust and Cold War.

Blending personal history with political insight, Spenser traces three generations of her family across some of the most turbulent chapters of the 20th century: from the devastation of the Holocaust and wartime imprisonment, through the vibrant intellectual and political life of 1960s Czechoslovakia, to the trauma of exile after the 1968 Soviet invasion. At the heart of the story are her mother, translator Ruth Tosková, and her stepfather, editor and journalist Vladimír Tosek, whose lives intertwined with prominent figures such as Jiří Pelikán and the émigré journal Listy.

The book—published in Czech by Argo (2025) and in English by the University of Alabama Press (2025)—offers a deeply human perspective on survival, displacement, and the shifting relationship between political exiles and Czech society after 1989.

The conversation will be chaired by Jana Burešová and will open a window into how private lives intersect with history on a global scale.

About the author:
Daniela Spenser is a fellow at CIESAS (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social) in Mexico City. She is also the author of The Impossible Triangle: Mexico, Soviet Russia, and the United States in the 1920sand Stumbling Its Way Through Mexico: The Early Years of the Communist International.

Supported by the BCSA.

More information:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/echoes-of-exile

#czechcentrelondon #booklaunch #conversation

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/design-and-transformation

#(when)arttalks #designandtransformation #terezavernerovavolna #michaelarezova

Don’t miss Episode 6!

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/

#(when)arttalks #panoptikum #lenkavagnerova

Listen to our latest episode and step into the world of contemporary poetry.

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/poet-peasant

#(when)arttalks #poetpeasant #sjfowler

Join our host, Sabina Tocháčková, and learn more about the vision behind the residency and the stunning art pieces.

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/they-all-met-in-karlsbad

#(when)arttalks #theyallmetinkarlsbad #valeriehorvath

Polak is a co-founder of the Mobilis Institute and the blockchain educational platform ShellProof, a Visiting Research Fellow and part-time lecturer at the University of Oxford, and leads the CCHAOS Research group at the Faculty of Information Technology, Czech Technical University. Her focus lies in the digitisation of cultural heritage and the simulation of civilisational dynamics. Having spent much of her career in the UK and the USA tech sectors, Polak is passionate about connecting modern technologies with the humanities. She has been named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30, was recognised as a Top Innovator (2022), and received the Business Revolution Award from the UK Department for International Trade. She believes that only through education and interdisciplinary collaboration can humanity fulfil its potential — and perhaps one day survive on Mars. She explores these ideas through the Civilisational Resilience think tank, which she co-founded. 

In her talk Archaeology and AI: the last hope for our survival?, Sara Polak will explore how civilisational resilience — the ability of societies to endure, adapt, and thrive through both crises and everyday pressures — increasingly depends on the synergy between technology and the humanities. She will examine how artificial intelligence and archaeology can enrich our understanding of past societies and offer strategies for a more sustainable future. By combining AI-driven archaeological research with humanistic insight, we can preserve cultural heritage, learn from historical adaptations, and help shape ethical, resilient technologies for generations to come.

Sara will be in conversation with Miky Škoda

Miky Škoda is a serial founder and evolutionary strategist, combining AI, education, and adaptability to tackle complex challenges. As co-founder of the Mobilis Institute, he helps organizations grow through innovative learning, science-based tools and strategies designed to build resilience and prepare for the future.  

More information:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/women-in-focus-sara-polak

#womeninfocus #airesearch #technology

Tune in and get inspired by her unique approach to recycling waste and building communities through architecture.

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/from-print-to-virtual

#(when)arttalks #identitymeetssustainability #dagmarzvonickova

About Juliet Vopěnka Navrátilová

Juliet left the Czech Republic at 19 and spent two decades in London after a few years in Berlin. Her lifelong sensitivity, once a burden, became a strength during a deep “alchemical journey of metamorphoses.” This is also the subtitle of her second book, Cesta (ne)mocné Londýňanky (The Journey of a Power(less) Londoner), which explores trauma, healing, and shamanic calling. Her London life included work in Wandsworth prison and as a Blue Badge guide. With degrees in Social and Medical Anthropology from Goldsmiths and UCL, her study focused on consciousness, ecofeminism, and ritual. Her first book, Myslet srdcem (Thinking with the Heart), became a Czech bestseller.  

About the Theme of the Evening – An Empath’s Journey from Rags to Riches

In this edition of the Czech Centre’s Women in Focus series, Juliet Vopěnka Navrátilová offers a deeply personal and spiritual reflection on living with extreme sensitivity. Her “shamanic illness” became the turning point that redirected her path—from illness and emotional struggle to healing, empowerment, and purpose. In this context, “rags to riches” refers not to material wealth, but to emotional, mental, and spiritual abundance gained through self-understanding.

Through travels in Latin America and participation in shamanic ceremonies, Juliet came to see her empathic nature as a gift rather than a burden. Empaths—highly sensitive, neurodiverse individuals—often absorb others’ emotions unconsciously, leading to exhaustion and illness. By embracing her sensitivity, she now helps others reconnect with their intuition and inner power. As a shamanic practitioner, she also energetically cleanses homes and spaces. Her journey is one of transformation through ritual, awareness, and heart-centred connection.

www.thinkingwiththeheart.com 
www.mysletsrdcem.cz

Juliet will be in conversation with Suzanne Edwards

Suzanne has been friends with Juliet for nearly 20 years. She is a published author of three books about spirituality, two of which are on the topic of shamanism. She is a spiritual teacher specialising in dream work and shamanic healing. She is currently researching the subject of ancient dream practices in different cultures including Egypt, Greece, Mexico, China and the Amazon. She is an empath living in London and has had a massage practice there for over 25 years.

Event took place on Tue 13 May 2025 at the Czech Centre at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More information: https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/juliet-vopenka-navratilova

#womeninfocus #shamanic #healing

Mucha, the pre-eminent exponent of Art Nouveau, revolutionized visual culture in Belle Époque Paris with his iconic theatre and advertising posters, laying the foundation for modern graphic design, whileTeige, a key figure of the European avant-garde, redefined book design through bold typography and geometric compositions. Sutnar pioneered modern information design, creating user-friendly communication systems that remain relevant today, and Šašek’s beloved This is… series of illustrated city guides reshaped how generations of children experienced the world.

Curator Tomoko Sato (Mucha Foundation), Peter Zusi (The Integrity of the Avant-Garde, Karel Teige and the Biography of an Ambition, Legenda 2024), Adrian Shaughnessy (graphic designer and RCA senior lecturer), and Lukáš Novotný (designer and illustrator) will shed light on how these Czech designers helped shape modern visual culture through a series of illustrated presentations, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A. 

Chaired by John Walters, editor of Eye, the international review of graphic design.

Tomoko Sato has been curator of the Mucha Foundation since 2007, overseeing its exhibition and research programs. Formerly curator at the Barbican Art Gallery (Barbican Centre), London, she has curated a wide range of exhibitions examin- ing the art, architecture, design, and photography of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a long-standing interest in the artistic and cul- tural cross-fertilization between East and West. Her publications include Japan and Britain: An Aesthetic Dialogue, 1850–1930 (Lund Humphries, 1991), The Wilde Years: Oscar Wilde and the Art of His Time (Philip Wilson, 2000), Mucha (Taschen, 2015), Alphonse Mucha Photographs (Mucha Foundation Publishing, 2018), and Le Pater: Le Grand Oeuvre d’Alphonse Mucha (Édition de la Réunion des musées nationaux-Grand Palais, 2023).

Peter Zusi is Associate Professor of Czech and Comparative Literature at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where he also serves as Vice Dean for Research in the Faculty of Arts & Humanities. Peter’s research spans various disciplines, including Czech and German literature and culture from the 18th through 21st centuries, Central European intellectual history, Czechoslovak film and photography, Slovak literature, theory of literary and visual avant-gardes and modernism, philosophy of history, Critical Theory, and the intersection of literature and architecture. He is also the author of the recently published The Integrity of the Avant-Garde: Karel Teige and the Biography of an Ambition (Cambridge, England: Legenda, 2024). 

Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer, writer, educator and publisher. A senior lecturer at the RCA, he also works as an independent design consultant. His book How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul has sold 80,000 copies and been translated into multiple languages. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a regular contributor to leading design journals. He co-founded Unit Editions, publishing acclaimed design books, and has authored monographs on Herb Lubalin, Ken Garland, Paula Scher, Vaughan Oliver, FHK Henrion and Lance Wyman.

Lukáš Novotný is an illustrator, graphic designer and author. His background is in the world of civil engineering and architecture, and most of his illustrations and design work relates to architecture and cities. His latest book, Modern New York, won 2024 Communication Arts Awards while his first book, Modern London, was shortlisted for the British Book Design Awards. His work was featured on BBC Radio London, TimeOut London, Czech Television, Londonist, Grand Designs magazine, Outsider and more.

John L. Walters is the editor and co-owner of Eye, the international review of graphic design, and also edits Pulp journal for Italian paper company Fedrigoni. He has written extensively about graphic design and culture, and has programmed and co-hosted 49 Type Tuesday events at the St Bride Foundation in London. Originally a maths/physics graduate, Walters founded the electrojazzpop group Landscape (landscape.band) and worked as a composer, arranger and record producer before launching the award-winning CD journal Unknown Public with Laurence Aston in the 1990s. For five years he wrote a music column for The Guardian. Walters is the author of Alan Kitching: A Life in Letterpress (2016) and has won three ‘Editor of the Year’ BSME (British Society of Magazine Editors) awards. He has edited Pulp since 2014 and Eye since 1999.

This is an accompanying event to Identity - The Story of Czech Graphic Design exhibition at the Vitrínka Gallery and Bouda Gallery, Czech Centre London, running from 28 February till 30 June 2025.

Recorded on Tue 22 Apr 2025 at the Czech Centre at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More information about events at Czech Centre London:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#mucha #teige #czechgraphicdesign

Throughout her career, Lenka has explored architecture through engineering, design, and legal frameworks, shaping her holistic approach to the built environment. She condensed 20 years of study into just 13, balancing full-time work and education. This dual perspective has enabled groundbreaking academic projects and informed her professional practice, particularly in leading projects atZaha Hadid Architects. A key milestone was The 8th ContinentⓇ – Ocean Cleaning and Research Station, which reinforced her commitment to sustainable architecture. Her research focuses on evolving design strategies for sustainability, explored in her PhD, and decarbonising construction through legal and procurement strategies at King’s College London.

She will discuss the challenges of pushing beyond societal limits on ambition, the importance of a strong support network, and the drive that fuels her continuous pursuit of knowledge and innovation.

Associate, Zaha Hadid Architects

Before joining Zaha Hadid Architects in 2017, Lenka gained international experience in New York, Vienna, and Bratislava. She specialises in design development and technical coordination across residential, hospitality, and office projects. Currently, she is  Lead Architect for the Le Schuylkill refurbishment in Monaco, overseeing design, planning, and team management.

Her expertise spans Europe, America, Asia, and the Middle East. She has played a key role in major office projects in China, including Taikang Headquarters (Wuhan), OPPO Headquarters (Shenzhen) and CECEP (Shanghai),], focusing on planning, technical coordination, and interior design.

Lenka completed her PhD in 2024 on Design Inspired by Nature. Her passion for sustainability has earned her prestigious awards, including the 2020 GRAND PRIX AWARD from the Jacques Rougerie Foundation and the 2022 Peace Prize from The International Peace Committee. Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the UN Ocean Conference, and 2020 Dubai Expo.

She holds degrees in Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Urban Design from the Slovak University of Technology and a Master’s from the University of Applied Arts. In 2023, she is pursuing Construction Law and Dispute Resolution at King’s College London, reinforcing her commitment to guiding projects from concept to completion.

Lenka will be in conversation with Marko Margeta

Marko Margeta is an Associate at Bjarke Ingels Group in London, with over 20 years of experience in the AEC and CGI industries, including 11 years specialising in computational design. A registered architect, designer, and computational specialist, he has broad expertise in BIM, sustainability, procedural and parametric design. His diverse portfolio spans projects of all scales—from product design to large-scale masterplans—realised internationally, including in China, the Middle East, and Germany.

Event took place on Tue 18 Mar 2025 19:00, Czech Centre at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More information about upcoming events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#womeninfocus #czechcentrelondon #lenkapetrakova

Join our host Sabina Tocháčková as she uncovers insights and behind-the-scenes stories from the project's creation.

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/ 

#(when)arttalks #identita

Join our host, Sabina Tocháčková, and learn more about their history, inspiration, and artistic journey.

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/

#(when)arttalks #thesmetanatrio

More information about the 28th Made in Prague Festival events: 

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/projects/28th-made-in-prague-festival

#madeinpraguefestival #closinggala #pavelsporcl #southbankcentre

More information about the 28th Made in Prague Festival events: 

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/projects/28th-made-in-prague-festival

#madeinpraguefestival #inspiredbykafka #coronettheatre

More information about the 28th Made in Prague Festival events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/projects/28th-made-in-prague-festival

#madeinpraguefestival #wehaveneverbeenmodern #gatecinema 

More information about the 28th Made in Prague Festival events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/28th-made-in-prague-festival 

#madeinpraguefestival #nikolbokova #quartet #jazz #crazycoqs 

More information about the 28th Made in Prague Festival events: 

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/28th-made-in-prague-festival

#madeinpraguefestival #vaclavhavel #ICA

More information about the 28th Made in Prague Festival events: 

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/28th-made-in-prague-festival

#madeinpraguefestival #waltzingmatilda #regentstreetcinema

More information about 28th Made in Prague Festival events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/projects/28th-made-in-prague-festival

#madeinpraguefestival #londonsymphonyorchestra #barbican

The event took place on Thu 03 October 2024 at Masaryk Room, SSEES, UCL, London.

More information & events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#vaclavhavel #dialogues #centraleurope

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

‚My work is an intimate portrayal of the human soul explored through the medium of etching, expressed in a distinctly female voice.

The content is inspired by universal and personal mythologies. The work is poetic and often narrative in its nature and reads as both contemporary and timeless. I cut, fold and overlay my works, often printing on glass or other transparent surfaces thus creating imagery that is multidimensional in terms of both form and meaning.

The feminine voice of my work is tactile and urgent, fragile yet strong, gentle yet enquiring. At times it floats weightlessly above the labyrinth of being a woman at other times it delves into the darkest corners of the female psyche.

The technique of etching uniquely reflects and informs the spirit of my work. I draw with a needle onto a plate, allowing the image to quietly grow, whilst a fragile silver line emerges from a dark background as if a distant memory was traced from the unconscious. The initial image undergoes metamorphosis as the alchemical process of etching progresses through each of its stages.‘ -  Míla Fürstová

ABOUT MÍLA FÜRSTOVÁ

Over the past decade Míla Fürstová has exhibited in over 20 solo shows in many countries including Britain, the USA, France and the Czech Republic. During this time she has won numerous awards and her work has featured in many international publications. Prestigious private and public collections including the Royal Collection, the V&A and The Museum of London have acquired her work.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Fürstová gained an MA degree in Art, English Language and Psychology at the Charles University in Prague whilst simultaneously studying for her BA degree in Fine Art Printmaking at the University of Gloucestershire. In 2001, Fürstová received her Masters degree at the Royal College of Art and has subsequently lectured at Coventry University and The University of Gloucestershire.  

In 2003 Fürstová was appointed the first Artist in Residence at the Cheltenham Ladies' College where she established and ran an etching studio until 2010. In 2009 she became the youngest ever Academician elected to the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol.  

In 2014 Fürstová's work reached over 400 million people when she was commissioned to make the artwork for Coldplay's Ghost Stories album and four singles. In 2015 the sale of her Coldplay artwork raised over £100,000 in aid of children's charities.  

In 2017, Fürstová won a commission to represent Mattoni in the Czech Republic, meaning that her artwork was printed on one million bottles of Mattoni water and featured as two 25 metre sculptures in her home country.

In 2019, Fürstová was commissioned to create artwork for the Czech TV series 'Vodník', which was awarded the most prestigious Czech film award. Also in 2019 a large monograph of Fürstová's work of the last twenty years was published. 

 The largest retrospective of Míla Fürstová’s work to date is currently on show at The Museum of Easter Bohemia in Hradec Králové, a city Míla grew up in. Delicate Matters (Taj jemnosti anebNávraty domů) remains open till 27 October 2024.

Another exhibition featuring Míla’s work, Time for Love (Lásky čas) is on show in the Czech town of Třeboň until 23rd June 2024.

Míla’s large-scale installation ‚Motherhood‘ can be found in London’s Marylebone Road, commemorating the old Queen Charlotte's Lying-In Hospital, one of the first hospitals to provide medical care to unmarried women. Míla won Westminster City Council’s competition for the commission of the work.

Míla Fürstová currently lives and works in Cheltenham.

Míla Fürstová will be in conversation with Jana Tillotson

Jana Tillotson is Mila’s friend of twenty years. She is another example of the generation of Czechs born in the 1970s who in the years following the turnover ventured forth in pursuit of higher education abroad. In Jana’s case this took the form of degrees in Russian Politics from the UCL and Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She currently lives in London with her partner and two children and works as a medical writer.

The event took place on TUE 25 JUN 2024 19:00 at Czech Centre at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More information:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/women-in-focus-mila-furstova

#womeninfocus #milafurstova #czechcentrelondon

Czech Centre's Women in Focus series continues with a talk by Kamila Kopřivová, the first Czech female rabbi. She will share the story of her journey to the rabbinate moving through Berlin, Jerusalem and London and how she became one of the rabbis of the synagogue that exactly 60 years ago became the home of more than 1500 Torah scrolls from the Czech Republic. What are the challenges of modern clergy and how is it to be a woman in this position?

ABOUT KAMILA KOPŘIVOVÁ

Kamila Kopřivová was ordained in September 2023 and has since served as a rabbi at the Westminster Synagogue at the Kent House in London.

She became interested in religion as a child, although she had intended to pursue a career as a scientist.  In her teens, a teacher gave her Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim and this sparked her desire to know more about Judaism. She earned her PhD in Jewish Theology at Charles University, Prague, and went on to study at Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Potsdam, and the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Journalism has also been part of her development. She worked as a Science writer and social media manager while at Charles University and she has lectured both there and at the Faculty of Arts, Potsdam University, on the ‘Challenges of twenty-first century Judaism’ and on Biblical Hebrew.

While studying in Jerusalem, she met Rabbi Benji Stanley, the Rabbi of Westminster Synagogue, which she knew was a a place very closely connected to Czech Jewish heritage. Then, still while continuing her training at Leo Baeck College, she came to be the Westminster Synagogue's student rabbi.  

Kamila Kopřivová will be in conversation with Jasmyn de Vien.

Jasmyn de Vien was raised by her Viennese grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, on a small island in Western Canada. She studied in Belgium, completed her teacher training in Prague and now works for the High Commission of Canada.

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program/women-in-focus-kamila-koprivova

#womeninfocus #rabbi #westminstersynagogue

Part of the Year of Czech Music and Smetana 2024.

In collaboration with the Czech Tourism.

Sandra Bergmannová is the Head of the Bedřich Smetana Museum – National Museum in Prague. She is one of the main authors of the exhibition Famous Czech Composers (2020-2022) and the books of the same name in Czech and English. In the research on the life and work of Bedřich Smetana she specializes on creating of the online catalogue of works and is head of the project of the critical edition of the 3rd volume of Smetana’s correspondence (1875-1879). Previously she worked as a musicologist at the Bohuslav Martinů Institute in Prague, where she stood at the beginning of the crucial projects, such as: digitisation of Bohuslav Martinů’s works, Martinů database online, and Bohuslav Martinů Complete Critical Edition.

Tomáš Hanus, Music Director of the Welsh National Opera, is recognised as one of the Czech Republic’s most exciting and important conductors. He has conducted at major European opera houses including the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Royal Danish Opera, Oslo Opera House, Teatro Real Madrid and the Teatro alla Scala. In demand as a conductor of symphonic music, he has conducted many prestigious orchestras including the LSO, SWR Symphonieorchester Baden-Baden, Czech Philharmonic, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He opened the 2023 Prague Spring Festival with WNO Orchestra with Smetana’s Ma Vlast. In February 2024 Tomáš returned to the Brno Theatre with a new production of Dalibor.

Originally from Zurich, Switzerland, Dr Thomas Jaermann obtained a PhD in musicology from the University of Zurich for his research on music and national identity. His postdoctoral research resulted in the award of the inaugural Recognition Prize from the G. A. Derungs Foundation for his compilation of a catalogue of the complete works by Swiss composer Gion A. Derungs. Since moving to the UK, Thomas has taught music and German at independent schools in the London and South East areas. His current research involves the life and work of composer Bedřich Smetana and his most recent invited paper on Smetana was presented as part of the 2023 international conference on Bedřich Smetana and European Opera in Litomyšl, and is due to be published in 2024. Thomas also composes music including piano, chamber music and orchestral film scores.

Jan Smaczny is well known as an authority on many aspects of Czech music. His publications include books on Dvorak’s B-minor Cello Concerto, the repertoire of the Prague Provisional Theatre, many articles, chapters and major encyclopaedia entries on Czech music and culture as well as edited volumes on Irish Music and Bach’s B-minor Mass. Jan is a graduate of Oxford University and studied for two years at the Music Faculty of the Charles University, Prague. He is the Sir Hamilton Harty Professor of Music Emeritus at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Chair:

John Allison is Editor of Opera magazine and a music critic with a special interest in the culture of Central and Eastern Europe. He was born in South Africa and completed his PhD while playing the piano and working as assistant organist at Cape Town cathedral. Since moving to London in 1989 he has written for publications around the world, authored books and served on the juries of many international competitions. He co-founded the International Opera Awards in 2013. 

The event took place on Tue 12th March 2024 at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More info about upcoming events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#smetana #yearofczechmusic #czechclassicalmusic

ABOUT LADY MILENA GRENFELL-BAINES

Born Milena Fleischmannová in Prague, young Milena grew up in the Chrudim district in a family with close ties to the Czech artistc scene. When she was three, Milena’s mother died in childbirth and her father soon remarried. In July of 1939, nine-year-old Milena and her three-year-old half sister left Prague on what became the last kinder transport train to the United Kingdom organised by Nicholas Winton. The girls stayed with a foster family in Ashton-under-Lyne and Milena attended a local school there before moving on to attend The Czechoslovak State School established by the Czech government in exile in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales.

After the war, Milena trained as a children’s nurse and in 1954 married British architect and urban planner Sir George Grenfell-Baines. Following a brief holiday in France, Lady Milena’s career took a different turn when she was offered a role as a cookery interpreter, starting her long career in the cookery business. Known to many as ‘Lady Remoska’, Milena is credited for introducing the Czech cook pan Remoska to the British market.

Another significant event in Lady Milena’s life was her meeting with Sir Nicholas Winton during the BBC Programme ‘That’s Life’. Disclosing Winton’s involvement in the saving of 669 children from Czechoslovakia before the outbreak of WW2, the programme arranged for many of those children to attend the live screening, Milena being one of them.

Throughout her life, Lady Milena has been actively involved in Czech-British cultural and social relations and pursued her life-long interest in classical music. She has been awarded a number of honours both in Czechia and the UK, including the Jan Masaryk Gratias Agit and MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire). For the last 10 years, she has been giving talks at schools on behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

The Q&A was chaired by journalist Ivan Kytka.

Talk + Q&A took place on Tue 27th February 2024 at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More information about up-coming events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#womeninfocus #ladymilena #czechcentrelondon

Ivana Kottasová is a journalist covering international news, conflict and human rights.  As a senior producer at CNN International in London, she focuses on breaking news across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Most recently, she traveled to Israel and the West Bank to report on the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, and the subsequent ground invasion by Israel Defence forces in Gaza. In 2022, she covered the build-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the battle for Kyiv and she continues to report regularly on the war and the human impacts of the ongoing conflict. She was part of CNN reporting teams awarded, among others, a duPont-Columbia Award, a Foreign Press Association Award and an Emmy. Ivana Kottasová began her career in the Czech Republic, working for various Czech newspapers and magazines, and the Czech Radio.

Talk and Q&A took place on THU 25 JAN 2024 19:00 at the Czech Centre at the Czech Embassy Cinema.

More information about upcoming events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

The Book of Prague
A City in Short Fiction
Edited by Ivana Myšková & Jan Zikmund
Published by: Comma Press
The book was published through the instigation and support of the Czech Literary Centre  
Featuring: Bohumil Hrabal , Michal Ajvaz, Irena Dousková  , Simona Bohatá , Jan Zábrana , Petr Borkovec , Marek Šindelka, Patrik Banga , Veronika Bendová & Marie Stryjová

Format: Paperback
Book type: Anthology
ISBN-13: 9781912697786
Published: 05 Oct 2023
https://commapress.co.uk/books/the-book-of-prague

Veronika Bendová (1974) was born in Prague and has spent her whole life there. She studied film screenwriting and dramaturgy at the FAMU film academy in the city and has devoted most of her adult life to raising her five children. She made her literary debut in 2012 with the novel Nonstop Eufrat, which has been translated into Spanish. She followed this in 2019 with Vytěženej kraj (A Depleted Land), which was shortlisted for the prose category of the Magnesia Litera Award. She also occasionally publishes short stories. She currently works as an editor at the Twentieth Century Memorial Museum, an institution documenting and preserving the memory of regimes and events in the former Czechoslovakia.

Marek Šindelka (1984) studied Cultural Studies at Charles University in Prague and screenwriting at the FAMU film academy. His debut poetry collection, Strychnin a jiné básně (Strychnine and Other Poems, 2005), won the Jiří Orten Award for writers under thirty. His novels and short story collections have been translated into several languages, including English, French and Dutch, and have won two Magnesia Litera awards. The short story “Realities” featured in this book comes from his collection of interlinked short stories Mapa Anny (A Map of Anna, 2014).

Paul Kaye (1969) was born in Bolton in the UK, and after studying biology and French at university, moved to Bratislava, Slovakia, shortly after the break-up of Czechoslovakia. While teaching English he began picking up the local languages, later moving into radio journalism and translation. He then worked for a decade as an environment policy journalist in Brussels, where he lives and now works as a translator for the European Union.

Jan Zikmund (1992) works for the Czech Literary Centre where he is primarily responsible for the promotion of Czech literature in English-speaking countries. He is also an editor of the English-language literary magazine B O D Y. He is currently a member of the jury of the Magnesia Litera Award for Poetry, the most prestigious Czech literary award.

Ra Page (1972) is the CEO and Founder of Comma Press. He has edited over 20 anthologies, including The City Life Book of Manchester Short Stories (Penguin, 1999), The New Uncanny (winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, 2008), and most recently Resist: Stories of Uprising (2019). He has coordinated a number of publisher development initiatives, including Literature Northwest (2004-2013), and the Northern Fiction Alliance (2016-present). He is a former journalist and has also worked as a producer and director on a number of short films. He read Physics at Balliol College, Oxford and has an MA in English from the University of Manchester. Ra has been recognised by the h100 Awards for the last two years running (2019/2020) for his contribution to the Publishing & Writing industry in the UK, and was included in The Bookseller 150 list in 2020, their annual guide to the book trade's most influential figures.

Organised in collaboration with the Czech Literary Centre

More info about upcoming events: 

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

Furthermore, the talk will touch on the topics such as the importance of public spaces, green living and regeneration of city suburbs. Using her 50+ years experience in the field, Ms Jiřičná will compare how various challenges are approached in different parts of the world and she will give a brief overview of the changing tasks architects have faced in the last 40-50 years. 

The final part of the evening will allow enough time for questions from the audience to open a lively discussion on architecture, urbanism, and beyond. 

The event was chaired by Deyan Sudjic, writer and broadcaster specialising in design and architecture and  former director of the Design Museum, London.   

About Eva Jiřičná

Eva Jiřičná, a Czech born architect based in London since 1968, completed her architectural education at The Technical University in Prague where she qualified with a title of an Engineer-Architect and later on at The Academy of Fine Arts where she completed her Masters degree. After the Russian Invasion she remained in England - she worked on the Brighton Marina project and on Lloyd’s Building and started her own practice in 1982. 

Eva became well known for the interiors of shops and residential projects and mainly glass staircases but also for her work at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Canada Water Bus Station, Leicester Library, Orangery at Prague’s Castle and many others. She opened with a Czech partner Petr Vágner another practice AI DESIGN in Prague in 1999, and completed many projects there including hotels, University buildings, Multipurpose Auditorium amongst others. 

Eva has been appointed Professor and has a long teaching experience. She is a member of Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Designer for Industry, and an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts. She has been awarded by CBE and received 11 honorary doctorates. Recently she has been awarded the Ambassador of the Czech Republic by the Czech Top 100 and Lifetime Achievement Medal by the London Design Festival.

More information about Czech Centre London events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

In July this year we screened Reconstruction of Occupation, a masterful cinematic adventure of a truly forensic nature that uses newly-discovered footage to provide a unique perspective on the 1968 military invasion of Czechoslovakia and its aftermath. 

We hope you'll enjoy this short reminder of consequences and historical insight by Czech Centre London director Přemysl Pela and Dr Thomas Lorman as they introduced screening of the documentary Reconstruction of Occupation on 17th July 2023 at the Czech Embassy Cinema, London. 

Thomas Lorman is a lecturer (teaching) in central european history at UCL’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) where he has been teaching and researching since 2010. His most recent publications are The Making of the Slovak People’s Party. Religion, Nationalism and the Culture War in Early 20th-Century Europe (Bloomsbury, 2020) and A History of the Hungarian Constitution: Law, Government and Political Culture in Central Europe (Bloomsbury, 2020) which he co-edited with Ferenc Hörcher. He also serves as editor of the journal Central Europe.  

More information about Czech Centre London events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

Kateřina Svitková, attacking midfielder playing for Chelsea FC, the top English FA WSL club, has made a remarkable international football career. She started at Slavia Prague, where she scored an impressive 188 goals in 177 appearances. She was top scorer in the Czech First Division in both the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons and has been named Czech Footballer of the Year a remarkable four times. As a 17 years old teenager, Kateřina made her senior debut for the Czech Republic national team and since then she has scored more than 40 goals in various competitions and qualifiers. In 2020 she moved to the Women's Super League when she signed for West Ham and then two years later for Chelsea. Kateřina will discuss the peaks of her amazing football career, how to deal with pressure in sport, and give aspiring footballers lots of tips and inspiration.

Followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

ABOUT KATEŘINA

Although Kateřina’s dog Buffon has not yet got used to the new place, Kateřina Svitková is very happy. She’s playing for Chelsea FC. The legendary club she's been a fan of since she was a little girl. In the realm of the European champions, where women's football is at its peak.

When Kateřina joined West Ham she performed a song by the famous Czech singer Marek Ztracený to introduce herself and to greet her new teammates. In Chelsea, she chose the everlasting anthem Wonderwall by Oasis. She wanted her teammates to join in and start with good vibes before the first training day. The Czech Republic international joined the Blues in July 2022 and scored her first goal for the club during their 8-0 win over Vllaznia in the Champions League group stages in October. 

The discussion will be chaired by Miroslava Fousková
Miroslava Fousková is a professional football agent working under Sport Invest, the biggest agency in the Czech Republic. She held the role of team manager for seven years at SK Slavia Praha women and one year at the women's A team. Additionally, she has seven years of experience with the men's A team of SK Slavia Praha, and a single year as general secretary of the FK Jablonec men's team.  

"Kateřina has developed really well over the past two years at West Ham. We've been watching her for some time and knew she'd offer the team a lot of quality in midfield and also wing-back too. She's really versatile and extremely driven and has a real love for Chelsea.’’ Emma Hayes (manager Chelsea F.C. Women)

"I am living my dream! I have wanted to play for this club my whole life having supported the team since childhood and I really appreciate this exciting opportunity.‘‘ Kateřina Svitková about Chelsea F.C. Women

A book launch and conversation with Kateřina Tučková and Dr Rajendra Chitnis

Kateřina Tučková is a leading Czech writer, playwright, art historian and curator. She has written four books published in twenty two languages. More than 300,000 copies of her books have been sold in the Czech Republic alone. Her novel Gerta / Vyhnání Gerty Schnirch  won the Magnesia Litera Readers' award and was shortlisted for the Jiří Orten Prize and the Josef Škvorecký Prize in 2010. The Last Goddess / Žítkovské bohyně won the Josef Škvorecký Award and the Czech Bestseller Prize in 2012 and the Magnesia Litera Readers‘ Award and the Czech Book Prize Readers‘ Award in 2013. In 2017, she was given the Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and received the Premio Salerno Libro d’Europa. In 2022 Katerina Tučkova was awarded The State Prize for Literature for the novel Bílá Voda (The White Water). www.katerina-tuckova.cz 

Rajendra Chitnis is associate professor of Czech at the University of Oxford. Alongside the books Literature in Post-Communist Russia and Eastern Europe, Vladislav Vančura: The Heart of the Czech Avant-garde and the edited volume Translating the Literatures of Small European Nations, he has published numerous studies about twentieth- and twenty-first-century Czech literature and contributed afterwords to English translations of novels by Antonín Bajaja, Jaroslav Durych, Viktor Dyk, Ladislav Fuks, Daniela Hodrová, Josef Jedlička and others.

Kateřina Tučková: The Last Goddess
Translated by Andrew Oakland
Published by Amazon Crossing, 2022
The book has been adapted for the stage by the Zlín City Theatre, the Brno City Theatre, and the Divadlo pod Palmovkou Theatre
Translated into twenty languages

Once upon a time, a group of women with extraordinary abilities lived high in the hills of the White Carpathians. They knew how to heal people and help them in misery, they knew how to cope with trouble, and they could see the future. The so-called Žítková goddesses passed down their abilities from generation to generation. Dora Idesová is the last member of their family. She did not learn their art, but studied ethnography and decided to write an extensive scientific study about them. In the late 1990s, she discovered an operative file on an “internal enemy of the state” – her aunt, goddess Surmena. The file was created by the StB (the State Security), and kept in the archives of the Ministry of the Interior. Dora discovers the fate of the women from the village of Žítková and is surprised to find out that although she did not become a goddess herself, she is also an integral part of the secret traditions.

“In The Last Goddess, Kateřina Tučková (…) shows her narrative skills, and we can only take off our hats to her skills. Not only did she choose an original topic, but she managed to combine fiction and reality in a clever, thrilling and believable way, to build rich characters, and to lead the complex saga with s twists all the way through to the end.” Jana Machalická / Lidové noviny

Our series Women in Focus continues with none other than Daria Klimentová, a photographer, ballet teacher and world-renowned Prima Ballerina. Having spent most of her career as a lead principal dancer at English National Ballet, Daria will discuss her successful professional journey from her ballet beginnings in Communist Czechoslovakia through her peak time as a dancer to her retirement and change of career direction. She will share what it takes to get to the top (and remain there), reveal the backstage struggles of a ballerina, and whether it is possible to combine a busy career with a family life.

Followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

About the speaker:

Following her graduation from Prague State Conservatorie of Music and Dance in 1989, Daria Klimentová joined National Theatre Ballet in Prague as a soloist, and was promoted to principal dancer a year later. In 1992, she joined Cape Town City Ballet in South Africa as principal. The following year, she joined the Scottish Ballet as a principal dancer. In 1996, Klimentová joined the English National Ballet at the invitation of then-artistic director Derek Deane. Since 2003 Daria has been the founder and Director of the Prague International Ballet Masterclasses held at the magnificent studios of the National Theatre Company in Prague.

In March 2013 Daria published her autobiography titled Daria Klimentova – Agony and Ecstasy: My Life in Dance. In 2014 she finished training as a teacher at The Royal Ballet School and joined the teaching staff there in September 2014 following her retirement as a ballet dancer.

More information about upcoming events:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#dariaklimentova #primaballerina #womeninfocus

Celebrating the bilingual publication of The Gravitational Field of the Inexpressible, Czech poet and architect Pavla Melková and leading British sculptor Antony Gormley meet on stage to continue an artistic dialogue that started six years ago in Prague when they first met and the idea of a joint book was born. In The Gravitational Field of the Inexpressible Pavla Melková’s poetry meets Antony Gormley’s drawings, circling the same centre and unfolding from the same horizon in their search for the essence of life, to emerge in a common language. Antony Gormley’s images and a staged reading of Pavla Melková’s poems by translator and poet Joshua Mensch will accompany the launch of this bilingual edition. Followed by audience Q&A and a book signing.

PAVLA MELKOVÁ is a practising architect, visual artist, poet and writer who regularly lectures on art and architecture. Her widely-recognized architecture is visible throughout the Czech Republic, where she has won numerous awards, including Architect of the Year (2014), the Prague Mayor’s Prize (2012), and the National Prize for Architecture (2012). She has published seven books on architecture, including most recently The Humanistic Role of Architecture (2016) and The Architecture of Reciprocity (2020), and is a regular contributor to professional architecture journals, anthologies, and collaborative works. Her two volumes of poetry include The Edges of the Day (2017) and Inner Time (2019). In 2012, she founded the Office for Public Space at the Institute for Planning and Development of the City of Prague (IPR), which she headed until 2017. Currently, she is a member and vice-chair of the Gremial Council of IPR, and is a partner at the architecture firm MCA atelier, which she co-founded. In 2015, she founded the course Concept and Interpretation at the Faculty of Architecture, where she teaches.

ANTONY GORMLEY is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has developed the potential opened up by sculpture since the 1960s through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others in a way that confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to identify the space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviors, thoughts and feelings can arise. Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the UK and internationally. A major solo exhibition of his work was presented at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in September 2019. Permanent public works include the Angel of the North (Gateshead, England), Another Place (Crosby Beach, England), Inside Australia (Lake Ballard, Western Australia), Exposure (Lelystad, The Netherlands) and Chord (MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA). Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013. In 1997 he was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) and was made a knight in the New Year’s Honours list in 2014. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has been a Royal Academician since 2003.

JOSHUA MENSCH is a poet and translator based in the Czech Republic. He is the author of Because: A Lyric Memoir (W. W. Norton, 2018). He has served as an editor of B O D Y since 2012. The Gravitational Field of the Inexpressible is a discourse between the languages of poetry and the visual arts. The book captures a dialogue between leading British sculptor Anthony Gormley and Czech poet Pavla Melková. The lines made by the words in the poems and lines of the drawings are traces that bring closer the shape of the essence – the essence of the world, our lives, relationships, and situations. The strokes of the words of the poetry and the strokes of the lines of the drawings circle the same centre and unfold from the same horizon. When the marks cross paths, the shape becomes more and more evident. Absorbed in the strokes, and with developing awareness, one mutual language emerges. This establishes the meaning of their encounter.

Above all The Gravitational Field of the Inexpressible is an implemented work of art, it is a fusion of two components in a provoking cyclical relationship - Pavel Klusak, Qartal

For more information about upcoming events, please, head to the Czech Centre London website: 

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

#booklaunch #poetry #visualart

About the speaker:

Monika Čejková is a curator of the next Fotograf Festival 2023: #Hypertension23 at National Gallery Prague and Ora et lege II at Broumov Monastery, 2023. Recent exhibitions include e.g., The Palace of Concrete Poetry at Writers House of Georgia in Tbilisi (2022), Neo-rising at Polansky Gallery in Prague (2022), Ora et lege I at Broumov Monastery (2021), Fantasy Finery at Berlínskej model Gallery in Prague (2021), Blasted Heathat AM 180 Gallery in Prague (2020). She studied History of Art at the Charles University in Prague. She is currently undergoing curatorial residency at the Delfina Foundation in London during which she plans to continue to expolore the theme of art in the (post) digital age and extend her research to art in relation to the new identity of the human being whose original form has been abstracted by digital space.

In 2020, Monika launched a long-term nomadic project titled "Ora et lege" – a critical dialogue between contemporary art and the teachings of the Benedictine order and the Catholic Church in general. This project is thematically focused on the work of contemporary visual artists with text and paved the way for another subject that Monika is currently exploring: the literary turn in visual art, which has brought to the fore various forms of authorial writing in relation to the overabundance of digital text.

More info:

www.monikacejkova.com

www.instagram.com/monika_cejkova

Czech Centre London:

https://london.czechcentres.cz/en/program

Recorded at the Czech Embassy Cinema in London on Wed 23 March 2023.

Robert Simon is an American librarian and musicologist specializing in Czech music. He is the author of Bohuslav Martinů: A Research and Information Guide and recently edited Martinů's one-act opera Ariane as part of the Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition. Other editorial projects include the Wind Quintet of Pavel Haas and Antonín Dvořák's Slavonic Rhapsodies, Op. 45. Robert currently serves as Music and Arts Librarian at the College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA), and previously worked at the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), where he launched their new Music Library in 2018.  

Jonáš Hájek  is a graduate of both the Prague Conservatory and the Institute of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, at the Charles University in Prague. He also spent a year at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig. Since 2007, he has been an editor (since 2017 the chief editor) of the Prague branch of the Bärenreiter publishing house, which specialises in Czech music. As an editor, he has prepared the Symphony "Asrael" op. 27 by Josef Suk ("Best Edition" prize from the Association of German Music Publishers 2019), Dvořák's Romance for Violin and Piano Op. 11 and Dvořák'sNocturne for String Orchestra Op. 40. He is the publishing supervisor of the new edition of Rusalka and the editor of its libretto.

Nigel Simeone is a writer and musician with special interests in Czech music and twentieth-century opera – both inspired by seeing Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen during a school visit to Germany in 1971. He broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio 3 (Record Review, Opera on 3, BBC Proms) and has published extensively, including twelve books, two of them on Janáček: Janáček’s Works (1997, with John Tyrrell and Alena Němcová) and The Janáček Compendium (2019). Nigel has given lectures on aspects of Czech music for the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Wigmore Hall, BBC Proms and Welsh National Opera. He has written programme notes for the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, the BBC Proms, the LSO and the Salzburg Festival, and CD booklet notes for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Hyperion, Chandos and others.

Anna Blackmur studied as a Royal College of Music scholar under Maciej Rakowski, completing her BMus with first class honours (2010) and her Masters in Performance with Distinction (2012). In 2015, Anna was appointed Section Principal Second Violin with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, having previously appeared as Assistant Concertmaster with the orchestra. She has also appeared as principal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, and principal or coprincipal with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (with whom she has toured extensively, directed by Joshua Bell, Sir Neville Marriner and Murray Perahia), and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Anna is in constant demand as a recording artist, playing on multiple film and television sessions. She is also in high demand as a coach/mentor, and as a chamber musician, playing with, amongst others, the Covent Garden Soloists and Aronowitz Ensemble, and attending numerous international festivals such as the BBC Proms, and the Saronic and Aims Festivals as an artist in residence. 

In collaboration with The Dvořák Society and the Bärenreiter Music Publishing House.

Cover photo: Růžena Maturová as Rusalka, National Theatre in Prague, 1901, © National Museum – Czech Museum of Music

Recorded at the Czech Embassy Cinema in London on Wed 22 Feb 2023.

For more information please visit our website here: Czech Centre London Programme

JONATHAN LEDGARD is a leading thinker on advanced technology, nature and risk. He is a fellow at the Prague Artificial Intelligence Centre and a Visiting Professor in AI and Nature at the Czech Technical University. Previously, as a director at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, he helped invent drone delivery of medicines in Africa. He is an advisor to companies, governments, and inter-governmental institutions. Separately, he spent 18 years as a foreign and war correspondent for The Economist newspaper, filing lead stories from over 60 countries – including a decade in Africa. As J.M. Ledgard, he is an acclaimed novelist. Submergence, a New York Times Book of the Year, was adapted for Hollywood by Wim Wenders. Giraffe, set in Communist Czechoslovakia, is also optioned by Hollywood.

Your chair for the evening is HENRY MANCE, chief features writer at the Financial Times. He has reported on a variety of environmental and animal welfare issues, and is author of 'How to Love Animals', a book of the year for The Times, Daily Telegraph, and The Guardian. Before joining the FT in 2010, he worked at a biodiversity think tank in Colombia.

Species survival: How AI can help conservation talk happened on TUE 22 NOV 2022 at The Royal Institution, London.

SPEAKERS:
Dr Jade McGlynn, Middlebury Institute of International Studies
Dr Václav Štětka, Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough

CHAIRED BY: 
DR MAXIM ALYUKOV, King’s College London

For more information please visit our website here: https://bit.ly/3y8fjxR

Recorded at the Czech Embassy in London on Thursday 19 May. 

For more information please visit www.czechcentre.org.uk

SPEAKERS:
Šimon Pánek, Director and Founder, People in Need Foundation
Maria Montague, Deputy Director, Ukrainian Institute
Radka Rubilina, Director, Czech Centre Kyiv
Barbara Drozdowicz, CEO, East European Resource Centre

CHAIRED BY: 
Klára Skřivánková, Trust for London

For more information please visit our website here: LINK

The  panel features Edward Lucas, expert on Central and Eastern European politics, economics and security, Rt Rev. Kenneth Nowakowski, the Eparchial Bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family of London, Marina Pesenti, former Head of Ukrainian Institute  London, James Rodgers, former BBC Correspondent in Moscow and Pavel Seifter, former Czech Ambassador to the UK.

For more information please visit our website here: LINK

More info at https://bit.ly/36dLctu

The fifth talk invites you to learn more about the collaboration between AI and theatre with artists and AI experts

• Piotr Mirowski - DeepMind, Improbotics
• Marcel Karnapke - CyberRäuber
• Rudolf Rosa - THEaiTRE

Chaired by Tracy Harwood, Professor of Digital Culture at the De Montfort University and director of the award-winning Art AI Festival.

More info at https://bit.ly/3EEIjy5

The fourth talk invites you to learn more about the threats and risks in online environment and most efficient approaches of cyber security and privacy with

• Karoliina Ainge - Cybersecurity and Technology Lead at Independent Diplomat
• Dr Luis Espinosa-Anke - Cardiff University
• Jiří Berger - forensic expert in Cybersecurity

Chaired by PhD. Joanna J. Bryson, the Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School of Governance

More info at https://bit.ly/308VhVW

The third talk invites you to learn more about the future of smart mobility and its implications with

• Laura Ruotsalainen from University of Helsinki
• Michal Čáp from MIT spin-off isee AI
• Zsolt Szalay from Budapest University of Technology

Chaired by Michael Keith, Director of COMPAS at the University of Oxford.

More info at https://bit.ly/2V7KaJQ

The second talk invites you to learn more about the impact of AI on our creativity and art with artists and AI experts:
• Marie du Chastel
• Mario Klingemann
• Jana Horáková 

Chaired by Melanie Lenz, curator of Digital Art at the V&A Museum.

More info at https://bit.ly/3ft5wb5

The first talk invites you to learn more about the ethical impact of the use of artificial intelligence with philosophers & AI experts:

• Janina Loh
• Charlotte Stix 
• Dita Malečková.

The virtual event will be chaired by Erin Young from The Alan Turing Institute.

More at https://bit.ly/32zPg26

For efficient long-term operation, robots need to adapt to the changes characteristic of natural and human-populated environments. We will present methods which enable robots to build and maintain spatio-temporal models of environmental dynamics and predict the future states of the environment they operate in. We will demonstrate how these capabilities contribute to the lifelong learning of socially intelligent behaviours, improve the efficiency of robot operation and increase their acceptance by the people they work with. We will focus on human-centric representations of time, and methods which can introduce the notion of dynamics to the environmental models used by state-of-the-art robots.

The discussion after the presentation is chaired by Dr. Michael Londesborough.

Tomáš Krajník works in the mobile robotics domain with a particular focus on long-term mobile robot navigation in changing environments. He has proposed several methods of representing the uncertainty of changing environments leading to the gradual improvement of mobile robot efficiency over time. He has designed and implemented software libraries for reliable visual navigation and tracking, which have been used by the roboticists of NASA, EPFL, KIT, AIT and many others. He actively cooperates with several UK universities and industries as well as with research institutes across the globe.

He also contributed to the success of the Czech Technical University team during the most prestigious international robotics competitions - earlier this year their drones and robots won two gold and one silver medal at MBZIRC (The Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge) and at the same time Tomáš Krajník’s students from the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems earned the highest score among self-funded teams and ranked third overall at the DARPA SubT Challenge, (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) where they demonstrated a multirobotic system for searching the areas affected by a theoretical disaster. 

Michael Londesborough is a British scientist working at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, where he focuses on research into boron compounds. He has won three prizes for Czech / Slovak young inorganic chemists, collaborates on projects with the British Council in Prague and on popularization projects for the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Television and the National Technical Museum. He focuses on making science accessible to the general public, teaching young people, and strengthening international relations between young scientists (FameLab competition). In 2009 the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic awarded him the Vojtěch Náprstek Medal for popularizing science.
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Part of the AI SCIENCE CAFÉ SERIES 2020 - http://london.czechcentres.cz/programme/travel-events/ai-science-cafe-series-2020/
Artificial Intelligence is the new phenomenon of the 21st century and has evolved out of the realm of science fiction and at best, a few technologically advanced minds and IT professionals, to everyday topics of discussion and one of the key drivers of the future progress of humankind. The objective of the  AI Science Café series, which will consist of five presentations by high profile, world acclaimed experts, is to introduce, present and publicly discuss various topics that impact our professional as well as our personal lives. As AI topics clearly generate more questions than answers, the series will strive to unveil trends and expectations from the inevitable social and technological changes which the future will bring. 

Part of the SCIENCE CAFÉ SERIES - http://london.czechcentres.cz/programme/travel-events/science-cafe6/
Science Café is a series of popular science presentations and talks by the best Czech scientists and innovators of today presented by the Czech Centre London. Inspired by the phenomenon of Cafe Scientifique which was first established in the UK in 1998 and spread across the world as a place where anyone could come to discuss the latest ideas in science and technology over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, Science Café is an informal forum for the discussion of current work and interesting scientific issues.  

The Made in Prague On/Off Festival presents for its 24th edition a hybrid festival moving between an online and offline presence, delivering both virtual and physical events and bringing Czech films, visual arts, music and debates to the UK audience. Opening with the UK premiere of Havel, a brand new biopic about the charismatic playwright turned president, six virtual film premieres portray great Czechs who have helped to shape Czech society and culture. Krištof Kintera’s The End of Fun! is a timely exhibition at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham while in London emerging artists Andrea Vytlačilová & Josef Zlamal exhibit at the Czech Centre’s Vitrinka Gallery, and the Gossamer Fog Gallery will host the Jiří Chalupecký Award Winner, Matyáš Chochola, - all representatives of the vibrant Czech visual art scene. For the closing gala the festival partners with Rich Mix for a live stream of intricate electronic music and dizzying visuals from Central Europe, Electronica: Vision of Sound II.

For more information please visit our website here:  https://bit.ly/MadeInPrague2020

Intelligent speakers are now paving the way in the AI scene. Alquist, a social chatbot designed by the Czech Technical University team of students under the leadership of Jan Šedivý, has won two second places and one third place in a row in the Amazon Alexa Prize competition, while beating more than a hundred international academic teams. Jan briefly reviews the competition and its primary motivations but his main focus is on the Alquist team’s expertise, which embraces several disciplines, such as Conversational AI, Dialogue Management, Linguistics, Audio design, Creative writing, and many more. Šedivý  also explains the development of the dialogues for favourite conversational topics. Finally he discusses the plans of how to turn Alquist into a product. 

Part of AI Science Café Series 2020 - https://bit.ly/3ocOVvS 

Based on real events and set in Mornštajnová’s native town Valašské Meziříčí, it tells a story of nine-year-old Mira and her aunt Hana.

It’s 1954 and nine-year-old Mira’s life is about to change forever. After a typhoid outbreak rages through her town, robbing her of her parents and siblings, the orphaned child is forced to live with her mysterious, depressive aunt Hana, a figure both frightening and fragile. Gradually, Mira uncovers the secrets of their troubled family history and begins to understand why her aunt is so incapable of trusting herself and the world around her.

Deftly weaving two separate timelines, the harrowing reasons behind Hana’s reclusive way of life, the guilt she wears as palpably as a cloak, and the tattoo on her wrist, are revealed to Mira.

Alena Mornštajnová is a teacher of English and translator and author of five successful novels. Her most recent novel, Tiché roky (Years of Silence, 2019), has confirmed her position as a critically acclaimed, bestselling novelist with more than 400,000 copies of her books sold in the Czech Republic alone. Rights for her most successful novel Hana have been sold to thirteen countries: United Kingdom, Austria, Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Latvia, Syria and Greece.

Julia Sherwood is a freelance translator from Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian and German into English (with Peter Sherwood), as well as into Slovak. In addition to book-length publications, her work has appeared in Two Lines, BODY. Literature, The Missing Slate, Words Without Borders, OpenDemocracy, Eurozine, Aspen Review and salon.eu.sk. She is editor-at-large for Slovakia for Asymptote, the international online literary journal, administers the group Slovak Literature in English Translation and co-curates the website slovakliterature.com

More info

Jiří Přibáň is a Professor of Law at Cardiff University, UK. He graduated from Charles University in Prague (1989) where he was appointed professor of legal theory, philosophy and sociology in 2002. He was also visiting professor or scholar at various universities across the world, including European University Institute in Florence, University of California in Berkeley, the University of Pretoria and University of New South Wales, Sydney. Jiří Přibáň has published extensively in the areas of social theory and sociology of law, legal philosophy, constitutional and European comparative law, and theory of human rights. He is an editor of the Journal of Law and Society and a regular contributor to the Czech and international media. 

As the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the main focuses has been to enhance additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3-D printing, as a way to help provide as many medical supplies as possible, especially personal protective equipment (PPE). In terms of global efforts, Prusa Research, a Czech company and the world’s second-largest manufacturer of 3-D printers, is playing a significant role in this process. Tune into our online Global Science Café with Josef Průša to learn more!

With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, the Prusa Research company is actively involved in producing protective face shields using the 3-D printing technique. The open-source 3D printing code has been provided free of charge to the entire 3D global printing community. Moreover, Prusa Research has donated thousands of protective shields to hospitals, general practitioners, emergency departments, orthodontists, pharmacies, police forces, teachers and other professionals around the world.

Josef Průša, born in Havlíčkův Brod in 1990, is a 3-D printer developer and owner of Prusa Research. He was a student of Applied Informatics at the University of Economics, Prague, and started designing 3-D printers when he was 19. After having built his first 3-D printer in 2012 under the name “Prusa Mendel”, he founded the Prusa Research company, and thereby introduced the world of 3-D printing to a much wider public. His business was built upon the RepRap project (short for replicating rapid prototyper) – an open-source desktop 3-D printer that is capable of partial self-replication. At present, Josef Průša gives public lectures on 3-D printing and open-source hardware. He also teaches Arduino at Prague’s Charles University.

Part of the GLOBAL SCIENCE CAFÉ SERIES Global Science Café is a series of popular science presentations and talks by the best Czech scientists, innovators, economists and other notable figures of today presented by the Czech Centres around the world. It is basically an informal forum for the discussion of various scientific and social issues. All events are currently held online and their content is being shared within the network. 

#czechculturetotheworld

Tomáš Krajník and his team from Czech Technical University (CTU) is developing an app which forecasts the density of people in public areas. Based on the data, you can then plan your visits or journeys accordingly and schedule necessary trips to supermarkets or pharmacies, for instance, for later.

All of this while respecting privacy of the users as the app is built on crowd-sourced anonymous data and also while taking to account local customs and patterns of human behaviour.

The Czech project combines principles known in medical science, artificial intelligence and chronorobotics. Krajnik and his team works with spatio-temporal models which can predict future people’s densities at various locations with epidemiologic models which can estimate the transmission and exposure risks. The resulting method will be able to predict the future risk of virus exposure at different locations and times, allowing the public to avoid these areas. This will lead to reduction of the risk of individual exposure and subsequently, to the reduction of the spread of the virus.

Limiting direct contact between people and large-scale testing is so far the only efficient measure to curb the outbreak. However, drastic approaches like city lockdowns, travel bans, school and office closures, cannot be in effect indefinitely, as they would result in an economic breakdown. Furthermore, the effects of the long-term isolation on the human behaviour and mental health of the population could be severe.

This new tool could potentially influence human behaviour so that the techniques of social distancing are efficient, sensitive and balance the exposure risk, individual welfare, social health, and economic efficiency. 

More at: https://bit.ly/2VHo0Mn

Michal Pěchouček leads the core technology and R&D teams and is also responsible for Avast’s scientific research in the field of artificial intelligence, machine learning and cybersecurity. He also lectures at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague and leads the Artificial Intelligence Centre which he founded in 2001. He has co-founded several technology start-ups, including Cognitive Security, AgentFly Technologies and Blindspot Solutions.

The objective of the AI Science Café series consists of five presentations by high profile, world acclaimed experts, is to introduce, present and publicly discuss various topics that impact our professional as well as our personal lives - https://bit.ly/2xtYnW0 

More info at https://bit.ly/2uKX1F0 

More info at: https://bit.ly/2ThBEVc 

More at: https://bit.ly/2IfyHOY 

More at https://bit.ly/3adF6py 

Jacques Rupnik is a Prague-born French historian and a political scientist focusing on the history and politics of Eastern and Central Europe. He was educated, among others, at the University of Paris and at Harvard, is currently Research Professor at CERI-Sciences Po in Paris as well as visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He was advisor to president Vaclav Havel in the 1990’s, Executive director of the International Commission for the Balkans, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1995-1996) and drafter of its report Unfinished Peace (1996), member of the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (1999-2000) and co-drafter of The Kosovo Report (Oxford UP, 2000). Among his more recent positions held, he was advisor to the European Commission (2007-2010), member of the board of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague (2010-2017) and member of the board of directors of the European Partnership for Democracy in Brussels (2008-2013).

Cover photo by Fondapol - Fondation pour l'innovation politique - https://commons.wikimedia.org/