Again, the organisers of “Brno, the town in the center of Europe”, the largest event taking place in Brno, don’t give a fuck about publishing a proper English-language guide to the festival. So I picked up the most interesting events from the Czech schedule. Don’t forget to share the list with your friends and to attend at least one of these events!

Fireworks competition Ignis Brunensis

Fri 5/25 – Theatrum Pyroboli (CZ) @ Kraví hora park (not a part of the competition)

Sat 5/26 – Flash Barrandov SFX (CZ) @ Brno dam lake

Wed 5/30 – Pirotecnia Ricardo Caballer (Spain) @ Brno dam lake (“Přístaviště” stop at tram line #1, Bystrc quarter)

Sat 6/2 – Foti International Fireworks (Australia) @ Brno dam lake

Wed 6/6 – Panda Fireworks (China) @ Brno dam lake

Fri 6/8 – Flash Barrandov SFX (CZ) & Pyrovision (Austria) @ Špilberk castle (not a part of the competition)

The fireworks do take place regardless the weather. If you have a car, leave it at home and use trams and buses instead – as the shows at Brno dam lake are attended by 100,000s of people, huge traffic jams occur in Bystrc quarter. Also, if you have a cell phone with FM tuner, listen to 88,3 FM to enjoy the soundtrack.

Other events of “Brno, the town in the center of Europe”

Fri 5/25, 5 p.m. – A parade of historical bicycles @ Náměstí svobody sq. (leaving for Rašínova st., Údolní st. and Kraví hora hill at 8.30 p.m.)

Fri 5/25, 8 p.m. – Start of 100 km hike around Brno @ Mariánské údolí st. (Líšeň quarter)

Sat 5/26, 10 a.m. – A race of historical bicycles @ Lužánky park

Sun 5/27, 10 a.m. – A family day @ Tuřany airport (various games, presentation of the aircraft…)

Fri 6/1 – The night of churches (more info coming in a special post next week)

Sat 6/2, 1.30 p.m. – A race of mountain bikes near Štouračova st. (Bystrc quarter)

Sun 6/3, 10.00 a.m. – A presentation of giant sand statues @ Náměstí svobody sq.

Sun 6/3, 1.30 p.m. – A race of mountain bikes near Štouračova st. (Bystrc quarter)

Sun 6/3, 1.30 p.m. – The Battle of Midway reenacted with model ships and planes @ Brno dam lake (“Rakovecká zátoka” – just follow the crowd)

Sat 6/9, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. – “The transport nostalgia” (a parade of historical trams and buses) @ Náměstí svobody sq.

Sat 6/9, 6 p.m. – The night of jugglers @ Downtown Brno

Sun 6/10, 11 a.m. – “The transport nostalgia” (a parade of historical trams and buses) @ Technical museum (105 Purkyňova st.)

Sun 6/10, 1 p.m. – A reenaction of a 17th century battle @ Špilberk castle

Sun 6/10, 3 p.m. – A concert of the early 20th century music (at least I guess so) @ Denis gardens

Sat 6/16 6 p.m. – A night of masks @ Náměstí svobody sq.

All these events are free of charge.

A funfair is operating daily at Přístavní st. near Brno dam lake.

You can order a hot air balloon flight over Brno on various dates thorough the two weeks. Check out balloonjam.cz or call 605 76 77 76 for more information.

(Photo on top by Sveter Sveter.)

More than a dozen of Brno’s museums and galleries will host the 8th Museum Night on Saturday, May 19. You may see many places usually unavailable for public together with regular exhibitions, for free or for a small fee.

Paying for visiting museums during this special event was unthinkable in the recent years and its introduction upset many people. But it has two good reasons: the museums need to make some extra money due to budget cuts and it was also almost impossible to get to some exhibition in the last years, as too many people were curious about them.

You’ll have to pay CZK 20 to get to Technical museum or Moravian Museum. Museum of Romani culture will keep free admission, Moravian gallery will let people pay what they want.

The event has a good English-language website. Visit it for more information about participating venues and for a great hour-by-hour guide.

What I like about the museum night is that Brno becomes a swinging town at least for a while. I avoid the crowded museums but I love to watch the whirl from a garden of some café. So meet you downtown on Saturday!

Look at some great pictures of Brno’s most spectacular event.

Last weekend, photographer Carlos Lopez covered Animefest for Brno Now. You can see more of his pictures at carloslopezphoto.com.

As the last year Anime fest brought some color to Brno. Fans of anime and Japanese culture gathered in the exhibition ground for 3 days of workshops, movies and seminar about anime and manga.

This year with around 2000 visitors, 400 more than last year attended the event making from it was a success.The cosplayers were, in fact, visually the main attraction who came form other parts of Czech republic, Slovakia, Hungary etc. dressed as characters of Naruto, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Gintana, Start wars, Magi, etc.

As example these girls, which know by their nick names::

Kana dresses as Simbad and Asu as Ja'far from the anime Magi

Kiri as Gintoki and Evina as Hijikata from the anime Gintana

They all came from Bratislava. They have been cosplaying since 2009. They have the support of their parents which came just with a big warning “don’t spend too much money on this” and is true a good costume can cost around 100 euros to more, enough said.

My justification about the retouching of my photos

These images have over-saturated colors. They are not “real” but my intention was not to represent reality. Anime is about fantasy and therefore cosplay too and in my photographs I want to show that fantasy, that unreal world of rich colors and fictional characters.

For me they are portraits of people who has the valor, courage, craziness and dare to live their dream at least for a day incarnating someone they admire or like. Obviously some just want to have fun but still require courage to dress like that and go out to the streets.

Gothic maids and other strange beings will be stroling through the streets of Brno again. A popular event Animefest, focusing on contemporary Japanese culture, is about to hit the town this weekend.

2012 Animefest festival takes place in Pavillon A at Brno Exhibition Ground; tickets cost CZK 500 with prior registration and CZK 600 without it. You can sign up for the event at its official website, which also carries a detailed schedule and some background information:

Animefest.CZ is the oldest and largest anime and manga convention in the Czech Republic, organized by a non-profit organization Brno otaku. As the name suggests, the festival takes place in Brno. More than 200 fans visited the first event in 2004 and each following con attracted more people, with over 1600 attendees in 2011. The festival program offers a mix of contests (e.g. cosplay and AMV), workshops, talks, discussions and, of course, anime screening.

Together with the festival, a Weekend of Japanese Culture takes place in Brno; Kunštátská Trojka café hosts most of its event, which usually have free admission. (See the schedule for more.)

You can visit a nice photo gallery showing last year’s participants by Carlos Lopez, from which comes the image on top.

For ten years, Fléda club at Štefanikova st. has been the centre of alternative culture in Brno, hosting both promising local bands and globally known artists. It has an uncertain future now, due to a controversial public notice.

The local council of Královo Pole quarter gave a clear order to the owners of Fléda: “All clubs and pubs located between 18 Štefánikova st. and 28 Štefánikova st. must turn off music at 10 p.m.” Reason? Complaints of people living around the venue.

Although it may seem to be reasonable, the notice raised several issues:

• Why don’t the order apply to all clubs in Královo Pole, just to Fléda?
• Why didn’t the council give Fléda a chance to isolate the building? The owners already invested around €100,000 to solve the problem, further repairs were planned.
• Why didn’t the complaining residents let officers measure the levels of noise in their apartments? Also, some of the complaints were filed when Fléda was closed.
• The owners of Fléda also claim that before the neighbouring apartment house was bought by Jan Kratochvíl, noone complained. Kratochvíl sits in the council and has voted in favor of the notice Mr. Kratochvíl later disputed that, but there is no record of the poll. He claims that the town should buy the building hosting Fléda and repair it. Isn’t that a conflict of interest?
• The notice does not apply to nearby casinos attracting gamblers all night long – even in the Kartochvíl’s building.
• Also, the institutions of local government are schizophrenic: Fléda is often praised by the town council for attracting tourists to Brno and being one of the private venues that nourish the cultural life. On the other hand, it faces both financial and operational problems due to the Královo Pole council.
• Finally: the notice is actually not so clear. Fléda is oficially registered as a cinema, so a new notice or a court decision may be needed to solve the problem.

The case will evolve on. A petition will be launched in the forthcoming days. It is also possible that Fléda could move to another building. That would be a pity anyway, as the “Fledermaus cabaret” at Štefánikova st. has been hosting various cultural institutions since early 20th century.

The building of Faculty of Fine Arts at Údolní st. in Brno got a new decoration – an outdoor urinal.

I took the photos few days ago, so this is not a fools’ day prank.

Marked with OUT OF ORDER sign, yet quite functional, the urinal puzzles passers-by. You can find it halfway between cafés Mezzanine and Do vany.

The urinal is fully functional, it just does not have water supply.

The art installation is located near a new public toilet booth, built for CZK 3,000,000 (more than €100,000) at Joštova st. last year. This may be the urinal’s possible explanation.

Nobody really wanted to be photographed near the piece of art.

Map

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Bonjour! Aïe! Salut! – Just like every spring, Bonjour Brno festival will let you taste French culture and lifestyle without leaving Brno.

The festival is organised by Alliance française.

I especially like these events:

• Gourmet weeek in La Bouchée (33 Údolní st.) from March 30 to April 6.
• Concert of IMG at Fléda (24 Štefánikova st.) on Saturday, April 14.
• Concert of Yann-Fañch Kemener & Aldo Ripoche (two excellent artists of Brittany) at University of technology (1 Antonínská st.) on Tuesday, April 17.
• Dance evening “Fest-noz” at Design Museum (14 Husova st.) on Wednesday, April 18.
• Screening of Jean Cocteau’s Orphée at Cinema Art (19 Cihlářská st.) on March 30.
• Pétanque tournament at Lužánky park (Lidická st.) on Saturday, April 15, at 11 a.m. – including a tasting of Ricard pastis.

Again, the website does not contain an English version. If you want to learn more, try machine-translating the French one.

Check out the price of tickets (free admission is marked as “vstup volný”) – and buy them in advance at the venues or at the stand in the first floor of Dům pánů z Lipé (86/17 Náměstí Svobody sq.).

[GUEST POST] One World is one of the leading human rights festivals in Europe. In this year’s edition, documentaries from all over the world will deal with the issue of protests, riots and rebellion.

One World attempts to reflect the wave of demonstrations and protests occurring (not only) in the Arab world. Other themes, although not usually attracting too much publicity, such as relationships and their change in the contemporary society, and overlooked environmental issues, will also come under the spotlight.

The festival will take place from March 19 to March 27 2012 at the following venues: Cinema Art, B. Bakala Centre, Museum of Applied Arts and HaDivadlo Theatre. English screenings (i.e. documentaries shown either in English or with English subtitles) are again an important part of the festival and you can find them mostly in the Small Hall of the Cinema Art. What’s more, a series of new Czech documentaries, including Big as Brno, will be available with English subtitles this year.

There will also be 2 follow-up discussions in English on March 22 after The New World and on March 27 after Zero Silence.

Tickets can be bought through internet presale, at the ticket office in Dům Pánů z Lipé or at the screening places for 80 CZK. You can find more information on our website or One World Brno Facebook page.

MamaCinema – Special screening for parents with children

Would you like to go to the movies but can’t find a babysitter? Don’t worry. You can take your kid to our MamaCinema with you. The hall will be adapted to your needs, so that you can watch the film or look after you child when needed.
MamaCinema is a part of the human rights film festival One World Brno.

SAT 24th March 4.30 pm From Cherries to Cherries (ENG subtitles), Kino Art, Large Hall, 80 CZK + a discussion with the director and the main character (in Czech).

For more information about the film go to oneworld.cz/brno.

(Post from Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark.)

Rostislav Koryčánek has helped the House of Arts to become one of the most respected galleries in the central Europe. Now the town council is looking for a substitute.

A selection procedure is planned for a “near future”. Although Mr. Koryčánek can apply too, this practice has been used for installing less competent, more loyal employees for many times in Brno.

Official reason? Falling attendance numbers in recent years. However, as many critics point out:

• House of Arts has cancelled “free admission Wednesdays” that had been attracting thousands of visitors, yet not earning a single crown.
• The economic crisis has to be considered: this is a bad time for galleries everywhere.
• Many of BHoA’s projects has gained international recognition – such as Scultpures in the Streets. This is something that has not been achieved by any other town-owned institution.
• New director can not magically improve the attendance stats, as the exhibitions are planned many months in advance.
• The true reason may be that Mr. Koryčánek has not been always loyal to the “official line” of local politics. For example, last month the House of Arts hosted a (quite popular) presentation of a renowed main train station, which is sort of tabu for the town council.

I am not afraid about the future of Mr. Koryčánek, who is qualified enough to find a good job any time. The problem is that the House of Arts may walk in the steps of Brno Cultural Centre. Its new manager, Petra Kačírková, whose only qualification is the socialist party membership, has destroyed it in just a few months – removing the “cultural” part of the institution and transforming it into an unsuccessful destination marketing institute.

A peaceful protest against the town council’s cultural policy will be held on Saturday. Want to join? It’s quite simple: buy a ticket to the House of Arts and enjoy their current exhibitions.

Half a million visitors have already seen the exhibition Messel on Tour, showing 125 remarkably preserved fossils found at Messel pit, Germany. After being a hit in Oslo, Stuttgart and other European cities, it stays in Brno until April 7.

Messel on Tour is a great chance to learn more about the history of the Earth and its nature, especially mammals. The fossils are preserved so well that some creatures even still have fur or full stomachs.

The site has become famous also thanks to the discovery of the fossil Darwinius masillae considered as one of the first primates, thus a representative of the evolution line leading to man. Besides mammals, the site is famous for finds of birds, crocodiles, snakes, frogs, and insects. Messel offers thus an insight into the history of Earth short after the extinction of dinosaurs that disappeared 65 million years ago. In the figurative meaning, Messel is called a palaeontological Pompeii. Today, thanks to its unique fossils, it is a strongly protected UNESCO Heritage Site.

The exhibition is located in the Palace of Noble Ladies at 1 Kobližná st. (corner of Náměstí svobody sq.). Tickets cost CZK 100 each and they serve as a CZK 60 discount coupon for Brno ZOO.

From February 29 to March 7 you may enjoy “the world’s best films of the last season” at Bakala Hall, Velký Špalíček and Lucerna cinemas.

Following pictures will be screened with English subtitles:

• Aballay, el hombre sin miedo / Aballay, the Man without Fear (drama, Spain)
• Rundskop / Bullhead (drama, Belgium)
• Belvedere (drama, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora É Outro / Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within (drama, Brazil)
• Tilt (Bulgary)
• Los Colores de la montaña / The Colors of the Mountain (drama, Colombia)
• Kai apkabinsiu tave / Back in Your Arms (drama, Lithuania) (on the picture)
• América (drama, Puerto Rico)
• Kon Khon (drama, Thailand)
• Bir Zamanlar Anadoulu’da / Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

The official website contains a broken link to its English version, so you have to stick with the Czech programme. “S anglickými titulky” (in a detailed description of a film) stands for English subtitles. In the list of all films screened, “VŠ” means screening at Velký Špalíček (5 Dominikánská st.); Bakala hall is located at 6 Žerotínovo náměstí sq. and Lucerna cinema at 19 Minská st.

After €5.9M+ restoration, the popular tourist attraction reopens for public after two years on March 6. Don’t miss “the most beautiful interior room in modern architecture”.

Admission tickets to villa Tugendhat tours need to be booked online. It’s quite easy and there is still no big husle. That may be because Brno City Museum set the price quite high.

There are two kinds of tours: standard one for CZK 300 (180) and a “technical” tour for CZK 350 (210), which gives you chance to see the formerly unaccessible facilities in the building, like the laundry room and the dark room (which is more interesting than it seems). Family ticket are available for CZK 690 (standard) and CZK 805 (technical). If you want only see the garden, you may buy the ticket at the place – but info on price is not available yet.

Villa Tugendhat was designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and built between 1928 and 1930 for Fritz Tugendhat and his wife Greta. Sadly, they had to escape Czechoslovakia in 1938 and have never come back since.

It is a breathtaking, heart-calming piece of modern architecture. I love the living room, with the famous onyx wall, large open space and huge windows that make you believe the house is actually sailing above Brno, towards the cathedral.

The building was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2001.

Take a look inside (the video shows the villa before its restoration):

The reopening got covered by The Guradian: read the article and visit the gallery.

One of the Tugendhats’ daughters, Daniela Hammer-Tugendhat, works as a professor of art history at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

“For me, this is actually the most beautiful interior room in modern architecture,” she said. “Usually, it’s only in old churches that a room has such a meditative effect.”