The exhibition project ‘OUR FRANCE. French Poetry, Czech Artists and Translators’ to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia when France had a substantial role to play.  

Starting from Guillaum de Machaut to Yves Bonnefoy, from Villon to Prévert, French poetry was once a source of inspiration that Czech literature would embrace. The greatest Czech poets would translate the French giants: Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine or Apollinaire. Holan, Hrubín, Nezval or Seifert followed up their predecessors of no less bigger names: Vrchlický and Čapek. It was by virtue of translation by Otokar Fischer and Pavel Eisner that Villon’s pieces would provide a basis for Czech modern poetry. The close relation between French and Czech culture that had started in the late 19^th century influenced French poetry translation into Czech, and would reach numerous culminations over the 20^th century. The mature Czech book culture had occupied a truly extraordinary aesthetical dimension, whereas French poetry had inspired numerous painters, graphic artists or illustrators.  A set of illustrated books of French poets could virtually serve as a compendium of the 20^th century Czech visual arts history since it comprises nearly all great artists of their periods: Bauch, Bouda, Brunner, Čapek, Gross, Hoffmeister, Istler, Jiřincová, John, Kobliha, Komárek, Konůpek, Kotík, Kubín, Lhoták, Muzika, Reynek, Sklenář, Svolinský, Šerých, Šíma, Šimotová, Štyrský, Teige, Tichý, Toyen, Trnka, Zrzavý, Zykmund ... 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a prestigious research, collective monograph, which features an introduction and a study by Prof. Antoine Marès, next it provides studies by outstanding French and Czech authors devoted to translation and illustration (P. Brunel, X. Galmiche, J. Šotolová, J. Pelán, A. Pohorský, Z. Raková, Z. Šuman and C. Ébert-Zeminová, T. Riedlbauchová, V. Jamek, M. Topinka, J. Rous, M. Theinhardt, M. Šindelková a V. Dufková, L. Bydžovská, A. Pravdová, B. Schmitt, and others).

We are planning an accompanying programme that contains lectures, poetry readings, multimedia projects, as well as study interventions by the Departments of Romani Studies of Bohemian or Moravian universities; furthermore, the programme includes a symposium co-organized with CEFRES (French Research Centre in Humanities and Social Sciences) and conducted tours.

The exhibition falls into the project ‘The Czech and Slovak Century’.