Pilsen will commemorate the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution with discussions about freedom and period music

This year, Pilsen will celebrate the national holiday on November 17 with a new project called Forum Reflection. The event to mark the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the International Student Day will take place in Mlýnská strouza in the city center from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This year, it will mainly be about the theme of freedom and period music. The program includes a discussion program, screenings of interviews with witnesses, an exhibition and workshop, or video mappings by creators of the younger generation.

“In Pilsen, we traditionally celebrate the end of the war and the establishment of the republic. We are convinced that November 17 deserves the same attention. The name Fórum Reflexe symbolizes that every important event in the public space is reflected in different ways, resonates and co-shapes the social climate, which to a large extent also affects our attitudes and values,” said Jan Švábek, head of the Department of Communication and Marketing of the Municipality of the City of Pilsen.

This year, people can look forward to a live discussion program entitled Forum Reflections on the History of Domestic Culture in Three Stages of the History of Our Republic, framed by significant events in 1939, 1968 and 1989. The evening will feature samples from period vinyls with leading music columnists.

The program also includes screenings of interviews with witnesses, the exhibition and workshop Memories of the Nation or video mappings by the creators of Generation Z. The guests of the program will be Radek Žitný, Petr Dorůžka, Petr Korál and Lubomír Schmidtmajer, and in the evening, visitors will be guided by Pavel Anděl.

What the legends of the music industry will reveal during the interviews is in the stars. They will almost certainly not forget the Osvobozené divadlo, the Czech underground, a comparison of the Czech and world scenes over time (e.g. the contrast between 1968 in Czechoslovakia and 1969 Woodstock in the USA), the Rolling Stones concert in Prague in 1990 or the legendary Peace Concert from 1987 in the Lokhotín amphitheater with Die Toten Hosen.

At Reflexes, four video mappings will be presented, which were created as a view of young creators who were not yet 30 years old, i.e. people who do not have personal experience with totality. “Creators are recruited from students of the so-called video mapping school, which has been operating since this year as part of the BLIK BLIK light festival and whose aim is to support the creation of local talents. Pilsen’s Sutnarka is significantly represented,” said DEPO2015 director Jiří Suchánek.

The projection will be complemented by historical footage from Pilsen from 1989, memories of student leaders from Pilsen universities and actors of the November events from the world of art: visual arts, music, theater. “The accompanying exhibition in U Zvonu will present the life story of these personalities as recorded by the documentaries of the Memory of the Nation, including period materials and photographs. The contemporary social and historical context of November 17 in Pilsen will also be presented, both in 1989 and 1939,” informed Jiří Kunc, director of the Pilsen Region Memory of the Nation.

An interactive workshop called “Four stories of the revolution” placed unconventionally in the public transport tram directly in the U Zvon area will allow you to view the events preceding November 1989 and the Velvet Revolution through the lens of its actors. He will present what the journey to November 1989 was like for student leaders, a member of the Communist Party of the Czech Republic or a member of the State Security. They remember the turning points in their lives and together tell four stories of the revolution. The composed program is accompanied by a lecturer from Memory of the Nation. It is necessary to reserve tickets for the show at www.goout.cz/ctyri-pribehy-revolution. Entry to the Reflection Forum is free.