One World in Brussels is an annual showcase of a selection of documentary films from the One World festival (Czechia), currently the world's largest human rights film festival. The 17th edition of One World in Brussels took place between 15 and 19 April 2024. During the Closing ceremony the film "Patrol" was announced by the esteem jury as the winner of this year’s prize for Best Film. "Patrol", the film by Camilo De Castro and Brad Allgood highlighted the situation of indigenous communities in Nicaragua’s rainforests who try to protect their land from loggers and cattle ranchers and is a deserving winner of this year's prize for Best Film.  


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Closing Ceremony of the One World in Brusels 2024

S.V.A. Trio
Alexey Aslamas – Violin, Vladan Malinjak – Viola, Šimon Marek - Violoncello
David Hysek - Sound Engineer

SVA Trio is a unique ensemble of the Czech music scene defined by its stylistic range, creativity, precision and passion. It is a formation of three renowned musicians with extensive multi-genre experience. Their compositions reflect the collective musical influences of the ensemble members and respond innovatively to life within the big city. They have named their musical style “urban fusion” a blend of jazz, funk, groove and pop and successfully released their debut album under the same name in 2021.

Alexey Aslamas, violin
He studied violin at the Brno Conservatory with prof. Bohumila Kotmel and at the Prague Conservatory in the class of Prof. Pavel Kudelásk. Under his direction, he graduated from the conservatory in 2005 with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 accompanied by the Prague Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. He continued his studies with doc. Jindřich Pazdera at AMU Prague and at the International Menuhin Music Academy Gstaad in Switzerland with maestro Alberto Lysy and Livio Prunar. During his studies, he participated in various master classes (Prof.
Semion Jaroševič, Attila Falvay, Bogdan Zvoristeanu, Mihaela Martin, Philippe Graffin, Stanimir Todorov, Ettore Causa, Hagai Shaha and maestro Maxim Vengerov). Alexey studied conducting at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in the class of doc. Hynek Farkač. His achievements include prizes from competitions in Interlaken (Switzerland, 2005), San Sebastian (Spain, 2008), Schwerin (Germany, 2010), Chamonix (France, 2011). Alexey Aslamas is actively engaged in chamber music (Pavel Bořkovec’s String Quartet, Epoque Quartet, S.V.A. Trio). In parallel, he practices the
most diverse styles from blues, through funk to psytrance and hip hop (collaboration with bands Cradle of Filth, Acute Dose, producers DJ, Opia, Sirian). As a composer and arranger he collaborates with Epoque Quartet, Apollon Quartet, Michal Pavlíček, Monika Načeva, Dara Rollins, Dasha, Chuck Wansley, DJ Wich, Štěpán Hebík 7x3. He is a conductor at StarRecordings Production and Unique Orchestra.

Vladan Malinjak, viola
He graduated from the Pilsen Conservatory (majoring in viola) in 1994. He continued his studies at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory where he deepened his appreciation of jazz (jazz department violin major). Since 2010, he has been a member of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He is an active chamber musician (Unique Quartet and S.V.A. trio) and cooperates on various multi-genre projects (Aneta Langerová band).

Šimon Marek, cello
He started playing the cello at the age of six with professor Jan Vychytil at the Music School of the Capital City of Prague and continued his studies with Mirko and Martin Škampa. Later on he joined the class of Jan Keller at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory in Prague, where, in addition to cello, he studied composition with professor Karel Růžička. He completed his studies at AMU Prague in the class of cellist Mikael Ericsson. In 2016, he founded his own multi-genre string quartet Unique Quartet, which performs and records both independently and in collaboration with
leading musicians and singers from the Czech and Slovak music scene. In 2020, he addressed his colleagues and friends, who have similar musical taste and desire to participate in various cross-genre projects and thus Unique Orchestra was born. In the same year he became a member of the S.V.A. trio. He is active in the successful Prague jazz-fusion formation called Ochepovsky Project, in the pop quartet De
Facto Quartet and the band Talaqpo, which focuses on alternative music. Šimon has also experience in the theater environment. With his cello he accompanied various performances such as the Concrete Garden in the Švandovo Theater or Black Black Woods by Cirk La Putyka, and also worked in the productions of the Studio DVA or ABC theater.



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PH Concert Series: S.V.A. Trio

SVA Trio

“Let’s not turn a blind eye to the housing crisis in Europe. Rapid urbanization and migration are driving up housing costs, affecting low and middle-income households. But it’s not just about building more - it’s about exploring alternative solutions. Municipal rental agencies are stepping up to activate vacant housing stock and provide support to homeowners and those in housing need. That’s what I told my colleagues from cities and regions from across the EU. We must all be creative and tackle this pressing problem with diverse strategies...”, said Zdeněk Hřib at the 160th Plenary Session of the European Committee of the Regions.

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160th CoR Plenary Session

After the purely female exhibition project No Drama, which Prague's The Chemistry Gallery prepared for the Prague House in Brussels in 2021, where it presented the work of ten contemporary Czech female painters and sculptors, this gallery led by Petr Hájk comes with a show of five knights of contemporary Czech painting called Quid Pro Quo (ie an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth or just something for something). 

After the phase of manic intuitive painting, Tomáš Jetela has been concentrating on exploring the possibilities of figurative painting for the past few years, thanks to the stabilization of his health, which he is developing in many new directions in his unique way. The basis of his painting continues to be a certain drawing line, which is characteristic of many graduates of Jiří Lindovský's drawing studio from Prague's AVU. The basis of his animal painting, however, comes from the famous studio of Michael Rittstein, which equipped a number of its graduates with the ability of color-intensive and dramatic figurative expression. Jetela is characterized by a Baconian style of painting, often supplemented with collage, focusing on the psychology of the face and hand gestures. Drama gives his paintings a new addition to the landscape and a sense of eye-catching image composition. The Chemistry Gallery presented the work of Tomáš Jetela in December 2021 at the Scope art fair in Miami. In addition to the Czech Republic, he has recently exhibited in France, the USA and England, for example.

Jiří Marek's painting is characterized by a solid picturesque structure with slightly bizarre or absurd scenes, which, however, often have a basis in ancient mythology. It was his painting Quid Pro Quo that gave the title to the entire exhibition. This graduate of Prague's AVU from another legendary studio, Jiří Petrbok, has developed a characteristic painting style that is based on traditional figures, but which he uses symbolically and often in a fragmented way. The quality of his artistic expression has already been appreciated by the Romanian curator Luana Hildebrandt, who in 2021 included his works in the Travel Guide exhibition in Bucharest, Romania, alongside Romanian painters who are valued so much worldwide. The Chemistry Gallery presented his works at Berlin's Positions fair last year. It is characteristic of Jiří Marek that he builds the theme of the painting continuously during the painting process, and the resulting image of the painting thus largely depends on the author's current inspiration and intuition. His painting is not calculated, rather mystical and strongly symbolic.

Tadeáš Kotrba, another graduate of the Prague AVU, like Tomáš Jetela, first went through Jiří Lindovský's drawing studio and later Michael Rittstein's studio. It is therefore interesting to compare the approach to painting especially by these two authors. Kotrba is also characterized by a strong emphasis on the drawing line. He achieves this by layering paint on the paintings, and his drawing line thus emerges from the canvas into a light painterly relief. His favorite topics are overcoming various obstacles. Considering his personal life stage, the obstacles in the paintings are often overcome by children. However, these are obstacles that are often a challenge even for adults. In his paintings it is possible to see a kind of double aesthetic and at the same time one could tell a double story. Above the figures overcoming the obstacles, other figures hover, as if some ghosts, acting as attributes of the real characters. The aesthetics of these supernatural beings is taken from the work of father Tadeáš Kotrba, who, by including them in his paintings, artistically copes with the tragic loss of his father, the painter and sculptor Marius Kotrba. In this way, there is a strong intermingling of the work of the father and his son in his paintings.

The work of the unmistakable Jan Vytiska is characterized by exaggeration, wit and dark humor, all dressed in folk costumes and framed by the specific atmosphere of the Moravian countryside. This graduate of the Jiří Surůvka Faculty of Arts in Ostrava continues with his work the tradition of Czech drawing represented by the works of Josef Lady and Jiří Trnka and moves it into a contemporary, surrealist plane. It is often impossible not to laugh at the subjects of his paintings, which supports, similarly to Jiří Marko, the number of small details that make the experience of perceiving their paintings even richer. Although a number of disasters or supernatural phenomena occur in his paintings, the overall tone of his paintings is nevertheless relaxing and entertaining. Considering the popular motif of droopy eyes in his paintings, the exhibition titled eye for an eye would not be complete without his works. Jan Vytiska has already won the place of a classic of his genre on the Czech scene of visual art, his style is clearly recognizable and unmistakable. Last year's large solo exhibition The Ritual of Cursed Hearts at the DOX Contemporary Art Center in Prague under the curatorship of Otto M. Urban proved this. The Chemistry Gallery presented his work at the Scope art fair in New York in 2019. From this exhibition, a painting from the series Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is presented at the Quid Pro Quo exhibition at the Prague House in Brussels.

The youngest of the exhibited authors is Patrik Adamec, who graduated last year from Lukáš Rittstein's sculpture studio at the Prague AVU. He caught the attention of the general art-loving public last year with his surprising victory in the painting competition Critic's Award for Young Painting. However, the surprise was only apparent, because he submitted his innovative "sculptural paintings" to the competition in the form of reliefs, created more or less by painting techniques, which he first started creating during his internship in the painting studio of Vladimír Skrepel. It was not so surprising that it was these works of his with an overlap that the jury awarded first place. However, he does not resign himself to classical sculptural work, where he likes to work on the theme of lability. He depicts this in the form of deconstructed figures made up of various parts of the human body, which he leaves hanging loosely or just precariously placed on top of each other in accordance with the name he gave to this sculptural position. With his innovative approaches to sculpture and painting, Patrik Adamec creates an engaging artistic morphology, the development of which will certainly be interesting to watch in the near future.

All authors at the Quid Pro Quo exhibition already have a well-developed style of their own, which is recognizable at first glance. It is interesting to observe the subtle connections between the exhibited authors, which arise from their painting background. The quality of their work has world parameters, and therefore I hope and believe that we will see their work abroad more and more often. The Chemistry Gallery will definitely continue to try.

curator: Petr Hájek

Prague House
18.4. - 11.6. 2024

Book your visit: praguehouse@praha.eu



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Festive opening of the exhibition: Quid Pro Quo

Quid Pro Quo

The first part of the event, "the Mutual Learning Exercise", was facilitated by filmmaker and artist Madeleine Kate McGowan. During this session, she shared her methods for engaging individuals with the urban environment and fostering a sense of connection and responsibility towards it. Additionally, she illustrated her approach by leading an immersive city walk.

The second part was a moderated discussion focused on creating spaces for urban innovation, creativity and art. The participants had the opportunity to engage in a discussion with experts from various fields including art, technology, immersive theatre, experiential learning and design thinking. 

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The Role of Art in the NEB-inspired Urban Transition

First Panel: Twenty Years of the Czech Republic in the EU
The year 2024 marks recognizable moments such as the European Parliament elections and the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU. Throughout the past two decades, Czech citizens and businesses have reaped numerous benefits rooted in the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people within the EU. This period has seen the implementation of myriad projects funded by European resources, offering the Czech Republic a direct role in European integration and influencing the direction of the EU. However, EU membership has also presented challenges, including a variety of policies, directives, and regulations that have not always been positively received by certain segments of the political spectrum and the public, thereby fuelling Euroscepticism sentiments. Brussels is often criticized for generating progressive and utopian policies, spanning from initiatives like the Green Deal to migration quotas, which have exacerbated these sentiments.

How has EU integration affected the Czech Republic? How has the West’s view of the Czech Republic changed? What challenges and opportunities have emerged as a result of this alliance? What is the potential future for the Czech Republic in the EU and how will its involvement with the EU progress?

 

Second Panel: A Quarter of a Century of the Czech Republic in NATO
In March, the Czech Republic will commemorate its 25th anniversary of joining NATO, the world’s leading military alliance. NATO Membership has gained critical importance, specifically after Russia’s incursion into Ukraine and statements by Putin’s regime stating that NATO’s borders should return to their pre-1997 form, a time when former Soviet satellites, including the Czech Republic,
were still outside the alliance. Over the last quarter century, our armed forces have undergone modernization, integrated into solid alliance structures, and ensured the collective defense of member countries from external threats. Following Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, NATO has reinforced its defense, along its eastern flank. Notably, Finland has since joined the alliance, and Sweden is to follow. The focus of NATO has shifted from expeditionary missions to prioritizing territorial defense.

How strong is the commitment to collective defense? Is the US interest in Europe, and consequently in NATO, at risk of diminishing? Has the Czech army succeeded in its modernization efforts over the past quarter of a century? Are we a reliable member of NATO? How will our position evolve in the next quarter century? Will we be able to fulfill our commitments?

 

PROGRAM:

19:15 – 20:00: First panel: Twenty Years of the Czech Republic in the EU

Martin Hlaváček, Member, European Parliament
Jacques Rupnik, Research professor, SciencesPo
Ivan Hodač, Founder, Chairman of the Supervisory Board & Honorary Board Chairman, Aspen Institute Central Europe
Moderator: Jan Macháček, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society

20:00 – 20:45: Second panel: A Quarter of a Century of the Czech Republic in NATO

Jakub Landovský, Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to NATO
Jiří Šedivý, Chief Executive, European Defence Agency
Petr Luňák, Deputy Head, NATO Public Diplomacy Division
Moderator: Jan Macháček, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society

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The Czech Republic’s journey: Two Decades in the EU and a Quarter Century in NATO

Dvě desetiletí v EU a čtvrtstoletí v NATO

Lenka Kolářová Bernklauová, Representative of the City of Prague to the EU and one of the students provided the group with insights into urban policy and the city's activities in Brussels.

The trip included also a workshop at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU, visit of the House of European History, Vienna Liaison Office in Brussels (Vienna House), Royal Museum for Central Africa and a discussion with EP Andreas Schieder at the European Parliament.
 
Each step of the trip was a learning opportunity, preparing the students to become informed and effective contributors in the fields of international relations and urban policy. 



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 Educational Field Trip to Brussels: A Deep Dive into EU Dynamics

A Deep Dive into EU Dynamics

Kateřina Tučková, Czech author, playwright, publicist, art historian and curator, was interviewed by Kristýna Prunerová during the evening. During a very interesting narration, the author explained her creative process and presented the stories of the books Gerta, The Last Goddess and also her last published White Water.

She has won several literary awards, including the Magnesia Litera Award and the Czech Bestseller Award. In 2017, she was awarded the Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights Award by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. She also has received the Premio Libro d’Europa at the Book Fair in Salerno, Italy. Her books have been translated into twenty languages.

The event was organized by the Representation of the South Moravian Region to the EU and the Czech Center in Brussels.


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Meeting with the writer Kateřina Tučková

Meeting with writer Kateřina Tučková

**Ensemble Émeraude:**

Aleš Ulrich – Violin

Urszula Padała-Sperber – Violin

Nina Poskin – Viola

Jean-Pierre Borboux – Violoncello

**Programme:**

Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda: Trois duos faciles et brillants, Op. 243/2 - IV. Allegro Moderato

Antonín Dvořák: Terzetto in C major for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 74 - II. Larghetto

Bohuslav Martinů: Etudes faciles à deux violons - 8. Poco andante

Erwin Schulhof: String Quartet No. 1 - III. Allegro giocoso alla slovacca

Bedřich Smetana: String Quartet No. 1, “From My Life”


**Aleš Ulrich**
Born in Šternberk (Czech Republic) to musician parents, Aleš Ulrich studied at the Pardubice Conservatory (with Dalibor Hlava), at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (with Katy Sebestyen) and at the Academy of Musical Arts in Prague (with Ivan Štraus). Winner of the Vieuxtemps Competition (Verviers, 1998) and the Beethoven Competition (Czech Republic, violin and string quartet, 2002 and 2003), he also took lessons with Thomas Riebl, Ervin Schiffer, Valentin Erben, Thomas Kakuska, Milan Škampa, Petr Messiereur, Walter Levin,
Ivan Moravec, David Harrington… As a chamber musician, he has performed in Europe, the United States and South Korea. He has made several recordings for Czech, Belgian and Dutch radio.

**Ensemble Émeraude**
It was in Liège in 2019 that two violinists Urszula Padala-Sperber and Aleš Ulrich, both musicians of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, discovered their common passion for chamber music. Drawing on their experience in this field, they decided to create the Duo Émeraude and discover all the possibilities and riches of this small formation. In 2023, they came together with other friends and colleagues for a new project around Czech music. This is how the Ensemble Émeraude was born: an ensemble with variable geometry, extending from the initial two-violin duo to the string quartet or piano quintet. It thus
allows the exploration of a broader repertoire and often lesser-known works, written for less traditional formations such as the string trio, the trio for two violins and piano etc.
The goal of these accomplished musicians is to offer a vast palette of works sometimes neglected today, to get off the beaten track and seek out the original meaning of the practice of chamber music - by showing it in variety of its formations and in all its nuances and finesse.

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PH concert Series: From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields

Smetana

With more than 3500 participants from 59 countries and over 4000 live views worldwide, the 10th European Summit of Regions and Cities in Mons has been a great success! In many discussions, debates and workshops the participants called for a stronger voice of local and regional authorities at the centre of EU policies. Regions and cities must be heard when the next Strategic Agenda of the European Union, as well as the next political priorities of the European Commission, are being formulated. LRA representatives urged European leaders to do more to ensure that all EU policies are anchored in the local and regional level, thus reinforcing the democratic legitimacy and efficiency of these policies. The final Mons Declaration calls for:
•	Ambitious, fit-for-purpose public investment backed by an increased EU budget (exploring the introduction of new EU own resources), with cohesion as the basis of the European project.
•	Commitment to the European Green Deal as an overall direction of the EU. The EU empower local and regional authorities, including through direct funds for cities and regions, to help them respond to the impact of the climate crisis.
•	Greater involvement of local and regional authorities in the preparation of EU reforms and enlargement, particularly regarding the impact on policies such as Cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy. 
Regions and cities have the power to deliver a stronger and more resilient Europe!


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10th European Summit of Regions and Cities - Mons 2024  

MONS

𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗡𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗜𝘁 𝗔𝗹𝗹 

Czech Republic, Slovakia / 2023 / 80 min /dir. Štěpán Pech
Conceptual visual artist Ján Mančuška died in 2011. However, in his short 39 years of existence, he managed to create a number of remarkable works, many of which have been exhibited in renowned galleries around the world – including the Centre Pompidou in Paris and MoMA in New York. In his homeland, however, his work reflecting everyday life, social reality or the meaning of language has never achieved comparable fame. Together with the children of an artist who was not afraid to confront the public with the question of the meaning of art, the director embarks on a journey that aims not only to get closer to Mančuška, but also to reveal him in hitherto unrecognised shades, thus filling in the gaps that are increasingly appearing in the context of the fading memory of his personality.


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Echoes of Ji.hlava in Belgium

ji.hlava

"My Lovers" is a unique exhibition in the context of the presentation of works by Milan Knížák, primarily due to its monothematic nature. The selection of works is determined by the topic that the author has been working on since 2002 until today. Transgender is for Knížák an escape into a future we know nothing about. We can only speculate what happens to the man and woman at the beginning of the new millennium. Trans people, as the author calls his drawings, are actually an infinite number of possible and impossible genders. These automatic drawings, like coloring books, provoke with their simplicity and playfulness. In contrast to them are large-format paintings in which tenderness and lyrical form are inserted, which force the viewer to perceive eroticism, sex and perversion as something beautiful.

The author himself said about the exhibition: "Perhaps the future will surprise us with its forcefulness. Perhaps we are not too bold in our ideas."

Curator: Vilém Kabzan

The exhibition will last until April 10, 2024. Please book your visit at: praguehouse@praha.eu.



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