Agencies-Gaza post
Photos: Arab Culture Festival launched in Plzen
The Czech city of Plzen witnessed the activities of the Arab Culture Festival organized by the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the Faculty of Arts, University of West Bohemia, for the 12th year in a row, with administrative, knowledge and financial support from the University, ran from May 18 till June 12, 2022.
Festival director Tereza Svaskova told “Gaza Post” that the festival carries a cultural, civilized and human messages, embodying the words of the Lebanese writer Gibran Khalil Gibran, “The land is my country and humanity is my family”. Its aim is to spread knowledge, culture and encourage dialogue among civilizations away from “stereotypes” that promote prejudices and hostility towards various other groups, and phobias that stimulate fear and social anxiety about the other” promoted by some media and cinema about the different one.
Tereza Svaskova added: We encourage a dialogue between two cultures (Czech and Middle Eastern Arab) and convey our messages in two directions, from Arabs to Czechs and from Czechs to Arabs, but in the tongues of their own, with a cultural goal with a human and civilized dimension. We make sure that this dialogue includes culture, education, tourism, think tanks, media and even film production.
The Director of the Arab Culture Festival added: The festival was founded and still depends on a voluntary effort of our university students, I still remember the beginnings when I was a student at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Plzen and worked with a group of colleagues to interact with Arab culture and introduce it to Czech public. I remember that I participated with 10,000 CZK from my savings which should be used for my driving car lessons, but instead of that I used the money to finance the first session of the festival.
Tereza called concerned Arab embassies, representations and institutions for more communication and support for the festival, she believes that the embassies could support festival financially and even in terms of their presence at the festival events more significantly, calling on Arab community associations to be more interactive and committed to supporting the festival.
Returning to the festival,
The festival was inaugurated this year at the City Hall in Plzen under the auspices of Doc. Miroslav Holecek, the Rector of University of West Bohemia, and the Mgr. Eva Leheckova, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague, and in the presence of the deans of university faculties, representatives of Arab embassies in the Czech Republic and other festival partners.
The festival is held annually every spring in the city of Plzen / Province of West Bohemia and in the Czech capital Prague, in cooperation with partners and sponsors, including Arab embassies, Czech institutions and companies, and those interested in volunteer work and students of the University of Plzen, especially the Faculty of Middle Eastern Studies. Over the years, it has become one of the most important cultural events held in Plzen.
This year’s festival main theme was love in all its shapes and meanings. Its activities included an exhibition of selected books from Ibn Rushd Publishing House, a documentary film about the writer and publisher Charif Bahbouh, co-founder of the festival, who died in December 2020, and Arabic lessons (first introduction conversation for beginners, Basic Phrases and Grammar) and the “Garden of Scents for Pleasure of the Mind” theatre performance, which featured Czech and Hungarian actresses, and included performances and artistic discussions in the language of visual metaphors that address “global human issues” in different cultures.
The open day (Grand Saturday Program and Oriental Street Food Market on May 28) was the culmination of its popular activities happening in Pilsen, which attracted hundreds of resident Czech, Arab and foreign families, and witnessed the innovative promotion of the festival’s message: “A life without love… is a tree without fruit”.
The activities of the open day included a thematic visual exhibition of artist Jaroslava Bicovska and seminars on culture, poetry and the arts, where students of Middle Eastern studies at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague participated in reading Arabic literature and poetry in both Arabic and English and discussed the writings of Gibran Khalil Gibran, Omar Ibn Abi Rabea and Mahmoud Darwish’s poetry.
The activities also included painting and henna workshops, Arab dabkeh performances, Arab fairy tales, animation techniques, and the world of stories, a program for children organized by students of the Faculty of Arts at the University of West Bohemia in Plzen.
The festival director concluded her speech by saying: We look forward to working with all those concerned and interested in Arab culture. If you feel that our efforts are valuable and meaningful and you want to support us, contact the festival administration at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the Faculty of Arts at the University of West Bohemia in Plzen at the e-mail: [email protected]. We would also warmly welcome you at the festival events taking place in Prague (between 8 and 12 June), i.e. at the concert of Palestinian musical duo CharqGharb or at screening of Palestinian movie Wajib.
For more information, you can visit the festival website www.arabfest.cz, Instagram @arabfest_cz or Facebook page @arabfestCZ (Festival arabské kultury).
