Palác Akropolis is one of the venues in Prague where you can celebrate the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ox or Yi Chou. Part of the event, which opens at 4:30pm on Tuesday, will be the tasting of Chinese delicacies, tea drinking, Thai massage and breathing techniques, as well as a workshop on face decorating used in traditional Chinese theatre. A series of performances featuring music from the east will start at 7pm.
The celebrities born in the Year of the Ox include Barack Obama. His inauguration celebration for US president is another event taking place on Tuesday 20 January. Several places in Prague will provide a live big-screen broadcast of the ceremony, including Prague’s expat restaurant Jáma – The Hollow, or the Globe Bookstore where a discussion on impacts of the Obama election will take place (4pm).
Are you in the mood for the visual arts? The Golden Ring House, located in Prague’s Old Town, hosts until 22 February an exhibition of contemporary Czech and Slovak art. A large-scale collection of the last century Slovak visual art, Slovak Picture (Anti-Picture) is open at The Riding School of Prague Castle through 1 March.
The Spanish Cervantes Institute features a collection of artworks from 20th century Spanish artist Juan Brosso. The collection of surrealist images and visual poetry is open till the end of month. A small exhibition showcasing experimental graphic design and photographs of Czech artists Martin Vaňčát and Alena Kotzmannová is open till 18 January at Galerie 35 m2 in Žižkov. The nearby Café Pavlač is worth a visit.
The exhibition “We Had the Underground, Now We Have B…t” dedicated to the life of Václav Havel before 1989 opened in Prague’s Galerie Montmartre in Řetězová street. On display are poems, documents and photographs depicting the Czech underground culture under the communist regime.
Are you in mood for music? Les Touffes Kretiennes, a brass punk and ska band from France will play today at Rock Café together with the Czech ska band Basta Fidel. Members of this “crazy brass punk band” come from various French bands, such as Les Hurlements d’Leo, Babylon Circus or Les Chevals, and besides their own music, the French rockers cover songs of famous musicians like The Clash, The Kinks or Charles Mingus. It is well worth checking out.
Formed in the 1970s, The Stranglers have explored a variety of music styles, including rock and roll, punk rock, new wave and pop. The UK band will play their biggest hits at Palác Akropolis on Monday as part of their European ‘Hits Tour’ that is said to be their last big gig. The show starts at 7:30pm.
Are you in mood for wine? Prague’s Břevnov Monastery will be the venue for a big wine-tasting event on 16 January as part of the Prague Wine Week
Pass the Popcorn
If you are in mood for a film, you have quite a selection to choose from this week. The 15th annual edition of Project 100 opens in Světozor and Aero on Thursday. You can look forward to seeing a classical German horror movie from 1922, Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror, its remake Nosferatu – The Vampyre by Werner Herzog with Klaus Kinski, or the animated Animal Farm. Film gourmets should not miss Kurosawa’s, The Seven Samurai, Hitchock´s Psycho or Darren Aronofsky´s Requiem for a Dream. Quite a surprising piece of film art is the Argentinian film, La Antena, paying tribute to silent films, although shot in 2007. And the lovers of local filmmakers will surely enjoy Jan Švankmajer´s Alice.
Other movies entering Czech theatres this week are the Coen brothers’ comedy Burn After Reading with George Clooney, Brad Pitt and John Malkovich; Peyton Reed’s film Yes Man with Jim Carrey; or Steven Soderbergh’s biography of Ernesto Che Guevara, Che: Part One with Benicio Del Toro. The casting in these films is not the only reason the only reason to check out this film.
