Ben & Garrett's Excellent Spring Break

We're deep into Week TWO of the boys' spring break (two weeks?? sheesh!), and I think we've done a pretty good job of keeping them entertained. Actually, Prague has done a lot of the heavy lifting in the Keeping Us Entertained department. Here's what we've been up to ...

Paddleboating on the Vltava ~

Karl and Garrett paddle while Ben mans the helm.

Garrett chills out with a Prague Castle backdrop.

Novotny's Footbridge

Family pic!

Bonus -- the camera didn't fall into the river while we waited for the self-timer.

David Černý Revisited

We took an overnight trip out to western Bohemia on Friday and returned on Saturday via Plzeň.

Entropa, 2009. Lower right quadrant.

I really wanted to see David Černý's Entropa.

Entropa, 2009. Upper right quadrant.

I mentioned Entropa and the controversy it ignited in the European Union in the previous post, noting that it's now on display (permanent, as it happens) at Techmania, a science discovery center in the town that gave us the pilsner. The New York Times covered the EU scandal back in 2009 (and their pictures are a lot clearer than mine).

Entropa, 2009. Upper left quadrant.

One Weird Dude

Obnoxious. A hooligan. Enfant terrible of the Czech art world. Provocateur. Artist David Černý's been called a lot of things. Here and there amid the myriad Baroque churches and Art Nouveau hotels, the Renaissance palaces adorned with sgraffito and the Gothic spires, you can find the art (some would say "art") of David Černý.

Černý first made a splash on the Czech psyche in 1991 when he painted pink a Soviet tank that had been declared a National Cultural Monument during the communist era (commemorating the USSR's liberation of Prague). His most recent offense stemmed from the Czech Republic commissioning a sculpture from him to mark the occasion of its presidency of the Council of the European Union. (The Czech officials claim they thought they were commissioning a collaborative piece involving input from 27 artists around the EU.)

From Wikipedia's Entropa entry:

The Council of the EU has a rotary presidency system, whereby the governments of member countries exchange leadership every six months. It is customary for the presiding country to place an exhibit in the Justus Lipsius building, which are normally uncontroversial. France, which held the presidency before the Czech Republic, had simply erected a large balloon in the French national colours.

Entropa was installed at the EU headquarters in Brussels in early 2009. 

From a BBC report on the controversy:

The artwork, called Entropa, shows the EU's 27 members as snap-out plastic parts of the sort used in modeling kits. Each represents a country according to the crudest national stereotypes.

Bulgaria is shown as a Turkish toilet, Romania as Dracula's castle, and the Netherlands is underwater, with just a couple of minarets poking through the waves. But even more controversially, Denmark is made up of Lego building blocks which, from a distance, form an image of the Prophet Mohammed. And Germany is a network of moving autobahns - lit up, they resemble a crooked swastika.

Entropa was removed from the Justus Lipsius building in May 2009 and installed the next month in Centre of Contemporary Art DOX in Prague-Holešovice. It has been at the Techmania Science Center in Plzeň since last September.

I've been collecting pictures of Černý's work around Prague since the fall. Given that these are public installations that have been around for a number of years, it's safe to say that these are among his least controversial pieces. But that doesn't mean they're not irreverent.

Proudy (Streams) 2004. In the courtyard of the Kafka Museum in Malá Strana.

An Evening with Derek, Junot, & Albert

The Prague Writers' Festival is underway and last night the American Center hosted an event with the two headlining authors, Derek Walcott and Junot Diaz. A poet, playwright and author, Walcott is the 1992 recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. Diaz, who writes novels and short stories, has won numerous literary awards including the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Both authors were born in the Caribbean, Walcott in Santa Lucia and Diaz in the Dominican Republic. Diaz moved to New Jersey when he was six.

The facilitated discussion touched on what impact they each felt as a result of being separated from their countries of birth and how they felt when they or their work was defined by predictable modifiers relating to ethnicity or citizenship status. (Diaz answered this second question even more eloquently than he did in this 2008 Newsweek interview, but that's an interesting read also.)

And yes, I sat this close to them.

Derek Walcott, moderator Jay Tolson, and Junot Diaz

Tábor and the Hussites

Now that spring weather is upon us, we've started taking weekend day trips into the country again. With two energetic young boys, our day trips have to involve a lot of outdoor romping. Ben and Garrett enjoy a tower climb, can tolerate maybe one indoor exhibit, and are always open to hitting a pub for snacks and a drink (which, in their case, is either hot cocoa or juice). But any more of an indoor plan than that is asking for trouble. This year in Europe has not been one of whiling away afternoons at kavarnas or musing over the finer points of art from the renaissance period. At times it's felt like a mad dash from one playground to a geocache and back again ... while shoe-horning an historic site or two into the agenda.

In March we headed to South Bohemia to the medieval town of Tábor. Tábor is significant for its history and its architecture. Fortunately it has a few geocaches as well, because let's face it -- history and architecture only go so far in igniting the imagination the 6- to 8-year-old set.

To appreciate Tábor's history it's good to know a little about Jan Hus and the Hussite reformation. Hus is considered a spiritual founder of the city, although the city was established after his death.

Jan Hus profile relief, from the Bethlehem Chapel exhibit in Prague

Jan Hus was a Czech priest and a master at Charles University in the early 1400s. By the time he was in his 30s, his charismatic preaching style drew crowds up to 3,000 when he preached at the Bethlehem Chapel in Old Town, where services were in Czech rather than Latin. Hus, a follower of English philosopher and theologian John Wycliffe (an early dissident from the Roman Catholic Church and proponent of translating the Bible into common language), believed that there should be less separation between God and laity, particularly in the sacraments of confession and communion. He was also very critical of corruption and wealth in the institutional Church. In 1415, Hus was burned at the stake for heresy.

Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre

by Kate, with musical critique by Karl

I've got a whole bunch of posts to catch up on, including some photos and stories from events that happened last fall. Given that this blog is kind of our family scrapbook from Prague, bear with me as I wade through the backlog.

Prague's oldest theater, Stavovské divadlo (Estates Theatre) is in the heart of Old Town. You can find it at the end of Ovocný trh (Fruit Market) -- just as Mozart did on October 29, 1787, the night he conducted the world premier of Don Giovanni. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro was staged here in early 1787, albeit not with the maestro at the helm, and was reputed to have been as popular in Prague as it was scorned in Vienna.

Next to the building, Don Giovanni's Il Commendatore commemorates
the lasting connection between Mozart and the Estates Theatre.

"My Praguers understand me," Mozart said.

Springtime in Stromovka

About eight minutes from our apartment is Prague's largest park, Stromovka. Its proximity was a big draw when we were weighing the pros and cons of various flats.

Like everything in Prague, Stromovka is loaded with its own history. It was first noted in 1268 as the Royal Hunting Grounds for Czech king Přemysl Otakar II who had a hunting chateau built overlooking the park. The lodge has been reconstructed several times over the years, the last time in 1836 in a neo-Gothic style. Since then it has been called the Governor's Summer House.

Karl recalls reading a sign at the park that states the building retains some of the original structure from the early 1500s.

In the late 1500s, under Emperor Rudolf II, Stromovka flourished. Exotic animals roamed the game reserve. Existing ponds expanded and became fish farms after a tunnel was dug under Letna plain to divert water from the Vltava River. 

We love Stromovka, which means "place of trees." We found our first and best zip line in Prague on about our fourth day. The whole family went on a Forest Day walk with Class Acts in the fall. The boys enjoy various playgrounds throughout. In the winter I'd head to the park to get in some vigorous walks, and now that the weather is so nice, I run here several times a week.

And spring has come to Stromovka!

A Class Act

Way back in September -- back when the boys were going to a Czech school, back when we hardly had any friends, never mind English-speaking friends -- we learned of a Prague-based group called Class Acts that was doing fun and educational programs for children in English. We jumped right on that tip.

Two weeks later we were off on a "Forest Day" outing through Stromovka Park, which -- though it is right in our 'hood -- we traveled to by train via Masarykovo nádraží (Masaryk train station) in downtown Prague. Much more fun to start the adventure in a group, to arrive by train with a motley cast of characters, including bilingual guides in pith helmets and wardrobes worthy of Where's Waldo? and a parrot-sporting pirate to punch our tickets.

Pirate Lukáš "validated" our Forest Day tickets using the hook on his hand
(which, unfortunately is not in this pic).

Pirate Lukáš led us in singing the Pirate Song (to the tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"), which we belted out numerous times on our excursion.

All for one and one for all
Yo ho ho ho HO!
Let's sing the pirate song
Yo ho ho ho ho!