Prague Microfestival 2014

The sixth issue of Prague Microfestival will take place from Sunday 11 May to Wednesday 14 May in the Student club Celetná, Celetná 20, right in the centre of Prague and will commence with a warm-up “Prague Fiction Forum” night of prose readings on Saturday 10 May in the Utopia Club, Belehradská 45. The festival is fully bilingual (Czech and English) and celebrates innovative poetry, this year revolving around the topics of conceptual writing, digital poetry performance and poetry collective.

This year’s guest of honor is the renowned American conceptual poet, theorist and criminal appellate attorney Vanessa Place; in her output, she utilizes appropriation and thematizes sexual abuse, violence and workings of the institution called literature (as well as others). She will present her texts at the opening night of the festival, Sunday 11 May from 7pm, but before that will kick off the festival with a lecture called “Empire Aesthetics” (from 5pm in the gallery tranzitdisplay, Dittrichova 337/9). The opening night will also feature the Viennese-Bratislava curator, poet and artist Boris Ondreička, the Irish poet James Cummins and the Swiss multilingual digital performer Heike Fiedler.

On Monday the viewers can look forward to a panel discussion entitledPoetry Event and Poetry Activism”, starting at 4pm and again hosted by the gallery tranzitdisplay. After a short break the festival will recommence at 7pm in Celetná with the readings by a diverse group of Anglophone poets living in France. Kate Noakes and Jason McGimsey will introduce their Paris Lit Up project, followed by Jennifer K. Dick with her pleasurably sophisticated vignettes from the secret life of the CERN collider. The evening will wind up with a performance by the Konrád Kapitola Trio (David Ružicka, Marcel Bárta and Dorota Barová), a melancholy and melodic reading overlaid with subtle experimental jazz tunes.

On Tuesday, the limelight will be occupied by poets-performers and poetry collectives. The by now cult Slovak group Generator X will feature two dancers (Ferienčíková and Hianiková) alongside the poets Šulej a Habaj. They will share the stage with the Austrian noise lettrist Jörg Piringer, the British-Slovak-Czech trio TŘYIE (Fowler, Husárová, Peková) and their explosive performance bordering on theatrical and the French-Australian duo Samuel Langer and Antoine Hummel. Last but not least, the fourth night will draw an arch between the established poets of the Anglophone avant-garde and European new generation. The Irish visually oriented poet Maggie O‘Sullivan and the Australian provocative Ashberian Michael Farrell will pass the relay onto Linn Hansén from Sweden and Katarína Kucbelová from Slovakia, who both in their own way utilize conceptual practices to achieve crafted lyrical results.

The Prague Fiction Forum at Utopia Club on 10 May will feature the writers Louis Armand, Thor Garcia, Richard Makin, Ken Nash, and Phil Shoenfelt. The evening also includes the world-premiere of Ken Nash’s short film, “The Pigeon,” Phil Shoenfelt & David Babka unplugged, and improv jazz by Ian Mikyska. The entry is free as it will be for all the accompanying program of the festival.

The main program will start at 7pm at Studentský klub Celetná 20. Entrance fee will be 40 Kc. During the festival the viewers will have the pleasure to listen to the music by MiniStark, Were Mute, Happy Funeral and DoMa Ensemble. For more information please follow the link www.praguemicrofestival.com or https://www.facebook.com/PrazskyMicrofestival?ref=hl.

The festival is run thanks to the support of the City of Prague Council, Ministry of Culture Czech Republic, Ministry of Culture Slovak Republic, Embassy of Ireland in Prague, Czech Centres in Stockholm and London, Embassy of Sweden in Prague, Slovak Institute in Prague, Centre for
Information on Literature in Bratislava, Austrian Cultural Center in Prague, tranzitdisplay gallery. It is organized in partnership with the Czech quarterly for contemporary poetry Psí víno and proudly ranks VLAK, Tvar and A2 among its media partners.

published: 9. 5. 2014

Datum publikace:
9. 5. 2014
Autor článku:
Prague Microfestival