V Normal Festival in Prague - „Conquering public spaces”
On 16-21 November 2010 the next V edition of the Normal Festival was held in Prague. It was organised by the Inventura Association, whom we are friends with. This year’s motto was “Conquering public spaces”.
Three “emissaries” from our Association – Rachela Molicka, Joanna Ganczarek and Aleksandra Wiecha took part in all of the Festival’s events: the opening ceremony in Areo cinema, films screenings, unofficial meetings with special guests, and Koert Dekker’s workshop. Nevertheless, the programme embraced more than just the participation in the Festival. Within the project, provisionally and informally titled “Three women in Prague in November”, our brave representatives visited many fascinating places, among them: the Manes Gallery – with a superb interactive exhibiton of Play, Jan Saudek’s Gallery – one of the best-known contemporary Czech photographers, MeetFactory – Inventura’s headquarters in Praga Smichov area, and many more.
When it comes to the screenings during the Festival, we were particularly amazed by a film produced by Inventura Earthlings, Who Are You Voting For? This documentary tells about the disabled authors going to the streets before the election in Czech Republic, asking both passers-by and politicians whom they were going to vote for, what their plans of action were, what they expected from the authorities, etc. Thanks to the openness and freshness of perception of the reality, a delightful picture was created, portraying a collision of so-called normal world of politics with a more abstract world of people with intellectual disability. At the end, we are left with a question: who is really more normal, or true? Our sincere congratulations to our friends from Czech Republic on a great idea and marvellous film production!
Besides other screenings our emissaries participated in a very inspirational workshop run by a Dutch director Koert Dekker, who has been running an excellent Theater Maatwerk for over 20 years now and whose actors are people with intellectual disability. Those who took part learnt with innovative techniques and work methods. The workshops took place in an incredibly nice place – Inventura’s headquarters – MeetFactory.
It is impossible not to mention an amiable meeting with our Czech friend Ms Professor Jana Pilatova. As always, our conversation was very creative and utterly spontaneous, and new ideas concerning a new project emerged.
Apart from the highlights of cultural-tourist character, our representatives needed food, literally. Thus, they got familiar with the side of Prague which involved cuisine, restaurants and cafes:
- Therapy Cafe
- Country Life
- U Knihovny
- Lucerna Café
Below, you will find a detailed description of the visited places:
- JOSEFOV – Jewish district (including synagogues: the Spanish, Terezin, Staa, Klausova, Maislova; the old Jewish cemetery, and an unusually shaped of Franz Kafka)
- the Petrin hill (Prague’s Eiffel Tower) which our ladies reached going by rail, but they went up the tower on foot
- John Lennon’s Wall – located on Mala Strana, with the artist’s face painted right after his death; since then the wall has been the ultimate graffiti place, popular with tourists, the spot of meet-ups and trysts
- the Dancing House – an avant-garde building designed by an architecture duet: Vlado Milunića and Frank Gehry. (Its name comes after its shape which may be viewed as a silhouette of a dancing couple)
- Jan Saudek’s Gallery – one of the most famous worldwide contemporary Czech photographers
- Manes Gallery – with its amazing interactive exhibition “Play”
- Žižkov – one of the districts in Prague, located on the right bank of the Weltawa river, East of the city centre, with the Žižkov TV tower built in 1985-1992
The Žižkov TV Tower – the highest building in Prague – it’s 216 metres high. It was built in 1985-1992. It was designed by Václav Aulický, Jiří Kozák and Alex Bém. In 2000 it was the place where sculptures of crawling babies(Miminka), designed by Czech artist David Černý were exhibited. The installation, initially meant to be a temporary thing became hugely successful and so it turned into a permanent exhibition.
- the old Jewish cemetery in Żiżkov
- Praha Smichov – one of the old districts in Prague where factories started to be built, thanks to which it preserved its unique industrial character
This year’s edition of the Festival – although without our theatre performance – was very successful and reinforced the partnership with our colleagues from the Inventura association from Prague.
The photographs from the visit in Prague - soon in our Photo Gallery.
Three “emissaries” from our Association – Rachela Molicka, Joanna Ganczarek and Aleksandra Wiecha took part in all of the Festival’s events: the opening ceremony in Areo cinema, films screenings, unofficial meetings with special guests, and Koert Dekker’s workshop. Nevertheless, the programme embraced more than just the participation in the Festival. Within the project, provisionally and informally titled “Three women in Prague in November”, our brave representatives visited many fascinating places, among them: the Manes Gallery – with a superb interactive exhibiton of Play, Jan Saudek’s Gallery – one of the best-known contemporary Czech photographers, MeetFactory – Inventura’s headquarters in Praga Smichov area, and many more.
When it comes to the screenings during the Festival, we were particularly amazed by a film produced by Inventura Earthlings, Who Are You Voting For? This documentary tells about the disabled authors going to the streets before the election in Czech Republic, asking both passers-by and politicians whom they were going to vote for, what their plans of action were, what they expected from the authorities, etc. Thanks to the openness and freshness of perception of the reality, a delightful picture was created, portraying a collision of so-called normal world of politics with a more abstract world of people with intellectual disability. At the end, we are left with a question: who is really more normal, or true? Our sincere congratulations to our friends from Czech Republic on a great idea and marvellous film production!
Besides other screenings our emissaries participated in a very inspirational workshop run by a Dutch director Koert Dekker, who has been running an excellent Theater Maatwerk for over 20 years now and whose actors are people with intellectual disability. Those who took part learnt with innovative techniques and work methods. The workshops took place in an incredibly nice place – Inventura’s headquarters – MeetFactory.
It is impossible not to mention an amiable meeting with our Czech friend Ms Professor Jana Pilatova. As always, our conversation was very creative and utterly spontaneous, and new ideas concerning a new project emerged.
Apart from the highlights of cultural-tourist character, our representatives needed food, literally. Thus, they got familiar with the side of Prague which involved cuisine, restaurants and cafes:
- Therapy Cafe
- Country Life
- U Knihovny
- Lucerna Café
Below, you will find a detailed description of the visited places:
- JOSEFOV – Jewish district (including synagogues: the Spanish, Terezin, Staa, Klausova, Maislova; the old Jewish cemetery, and an unusually shaped of Franz Kafka)
- the Petrin hill (Prague’s Eiffel Tower) which our ladies reached going by rail, but they went up the tower on foot
- John Lennon’s Wall – located on Mala Strana, with the artist’s face painted right after his death; since then the wall has been the ultimate graffiti place, popular with tourists, the spot of meet-ups and trysts
- the Dancing House – an avant-garde building designed by an architecture duet: Vlado Milunića and Frank Gehry. (Its name comes after its shape which may be viewed as a silhouette of a dancing couple)
- Jan Saudek’s Gallery – one of the most famous worldwide contemporary Czech photographers
- Manes Gallery – with its amazing interactive exhibition “Play”
- Žižkov – one of the districts in Prague, located on the right bank of the Weltawa river, East of the city centre, with the Žižkov TV tower built in 1985-1992
The Žižkov TV Tower – the highest building in Prague – it’s 216 metres high. It was built in 1985-1992. It was designed by Václav Aulický, Jiří Kozák and Alex Bém. In 2000 it was the place where sculptures of crawling babies(Miminka), designed by Czech artist David Černý were exhibited. The installation, initially meant to be a temporary thing became hugely successful and so it turned into a permanent exhibition.
- the old Jewish cemetery in Żiżkov
- Praha Smichov – one of the old districts in Prague where factories started to be built, thanks to which it preserved its unique industrial character
This year’s edition of the Festival – although without our theatre performance – was very successful and reinforced the partnership with our colleagues from the Inventura association from Prague.
The photographs from the visit in Prague - soon in our Photo Gallery.