BUCHAREST

Ad La G Lov Director

During the six months of the Presidency, the Czech Centre Budapest became visible in Budapest as well as other regions thanks to a wide range of cultural events from all areas, including literature, visual arts and language education. One of the areas was sport; yoga sessions were held for a month in the centre of Budapest on Margaret Island. A significant event was a conference dedicated to Václav Havel’s legacy and in the context of the current international events, attention was on Ukraine.

In Hungary, the Czech Presidency started with a concert of the mixed children’s choir Mendík organized in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Budapest. In the following days, various events were held including a presentation of Czech design, a separate exhibition of the works of the glassmaker Lukáš Jabůrek and a joint concert of Czech and Hungarian jazz musicians. However, this was by far not the end of the programme. During the holidays, we travelled to Lake Balaton with a mural made by a young illustrator Jakub Bachorík which in a humorous way reflects the link between Czechia and Hungary using well-known cultural icons.

In the summer, the general Hungarian public had the opportunity to join our free outdoor yoga sessions which became extremely popular. The Hungarians also appreciated “The Future Lab” exhibition focused on sustainable design. The event was held in Deák Square in the centre of Budapest.

In the autumn, we organized a concert by the legendary group Plastic People of the Universe at the Central European University which took place on the occasion of “The Václav Havel European Dialogues” conference. Large-format photographs of destroyed Ukrainian monuments were installed in one of the central squares to draw attention to the devastating horrors of the war. In addition, we organized a public collection to help the victims from war-torn Ukraine. I am pleased that our Ukrainian colleagues joined the EUNIC cluster as these activities helped highlight the topic of Ukraine. Moreover, we created an original format of an online war poetry series written by Ukrainian authors living in Czechia.