Czech Ateliers inspire Slovaks
The artwork on the auction's catalogue by Vladimír Popovič, with a reserve price of Sk37,000 (€945), was sold for Sk55,000 (€1,400).
photo: Courtesy of Art SK
ART SK auction house, a branch of its Czech partner Art CZ, held its autumn auction of contemporary Czech and Slovak art on October 30. It sold works for a total Sk1.2 million (€31,000) and introduced a thick volume entitled Czech Ateliers, with English translation, which maps the current Czech scene.
"Work on the Slovak Ateliers will start next year," said Ondřej Sýkora from Art CZ.
With 512 pages Czech Ateliers serves as an introduction to around 70 interesting artists on the contemporary Czech scene. The profiles are accompanied by reflections from the artists themselves, photos of their ateliers and works and a curator's commentary.
It took two years to gather the material for the book together. Sýkora assumes it will take at least as long to publish the Slovak version of the project.
Ars Poetica brings world's poetry
THE LARGEST international literary festival in Slovakia, Ars Poetica, opened on November 2. It began with poetry readings, music and dance activities, and continues with movie screenings at Bratislava's Mladosť cinema from November 6 to November 12.
Love in Bilingual Motion, a dance.
photo: Courtesy of Ars Poetica
The third year of the festival opened by introducing the British magazine Poetry Wales, with an edition dedicated to Slovak poetry. The magazine presents the work of eight contemporary Slovak poets to the British public. The evening continued with presentations by four British and Irish poets: Brian McCabe, Rebecca O'Connor, Matthew Hollis and Robert Minhinnick.
The film part of the festival offers 25 feature films, documentaries and video-poems, which tell the life-stories and presents the work of poets around the world. Films from the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Austria, Israel, Poland, France and Italy are shown in original versions with Slovak translations. The Czech and Slovak films are only in original versions.
The programme includes the American film The Source (November 7), a documentary about the Beat generation, poets who influenced whole generations, and Poetry in Motion (November 9), in which more than 20 American poets and writers, such as John Cage, William Burroughs, Ed Sanders, Charles Bukowski and Allen Ginsberg, tell their stories. November 8 brings the true story of a Puerto Rican poet Miguel Pinero, and November 11 features Australian documentaries on poets Judith Wright and Romaine Moreton.
For more information on the individual films and their screenings visit. www.arspoetica.sk (also in English).
Running for the gift of sight
SWISS couple Nicole and Serge Roethelis received a special honour at Ekotopfilm, an international festival of professional films. The festival, with the spotlight on various peoples' activities in sustainable development, took place in Bratislava between October 24 and 28 and will run in Košice between November 8 and 10.
Serge Roetheli ran 40,912 kilometres through 37 countries to collect money for children in need of eye operations in the third world. His wife accompanied him on the journey on a motorcycle. The couple set off on the charity mission in February 2000 and finished five years later.
According to the daily SME, the couple collected 320,000 Swiss francs, which they used to pay for eye operations for blind children and finding adoptive parents for about 5,000 orphans.
Prepared by Spectator staff
from press reports
