Lost among beer bottles

Remember I mentioned the Lost in Translation exhibition? Well, the opening was today!

The first part of the event was a screening of  a documentary called Czechin London, which looked at 7 Czechs living in London – what they do, how they feel, what is their sense of “home” etc. It was your typical experimental low-budget project, but parts of it were very cleverly shot – e.g. a guy pointing the open “skeleton” of an umbrella (with the fabric missing) at the London Eye & turning it around … I want an “umbrella” like that now!

A lot of the people in the movie were artists, and I was impressed with some of the talent out there. Petra Kvarčáková was one person who really stood out for me – she designs amazing pieces of  jewellery (some of which she was wearing to the event) and sells them at markets in London. I don’t know which ones, but I will try to find out! By doing a bit of stalking on Google (be afraid! I am very good at it …) I have managed to find out that she does product design for this company called Vendula London – check it out, their stuff is AWESOME. Exactly my style: funky and happy and colourful! I’ve also managed to find some photos of Petra’s older designs here and here and here too. (Told you I was good at Google-stalking.)

After the movie, there was an open moderated discussion, with a panel consisting of some people from the movie, one of the artists from the exhibition, and the curator Michaela Freeman. Some of this felt quite emotional for me, with people reflecting on not knowing where their home is, the sacrifices one has to make when moving abroad, missing family etc. I have been thinking about these topics a lot recently, and maybe it’s time for me to bury it all again and just get on with my life.

Blanka Křivánková, a Czech playwright who lived in London for some time, mentioned something that resonated with me a lot – how moving to a new country where no one knows you gives you the freedom to do anything you want, and how our past can often be an obstacle.

Zoe Brooks, a writer who is originally from the Cotswolds but now lives in South Bohemia, raised another interesting point, something that came to her while looking at the photograph that was used on the promotional material for the exhibition. (The photo is inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood.) Zoe thinks our inner childhood is repressed in England, and that the Czechs allow the child inside of them to come out much more, while in England there is pressure to act like a grown up all the time. Unfortunately, the moderator seemed to have completely missed that Zoe was asking the others on the panel / in the audience whether they ever felt this, and sadly the discussion was killed off at that point.  Which was ironic, given that the title of the whole event was “Lost in Translation.” Zoe’s insight was one of the most intelligent pieces of reflection during the whole discussion (much of which revolved around stating the bleeding obvious), so it’s a real shame the moderator wasn’t able to pick up on it. Having experienced both the Czech and the English education systems, I think Zoe might have a point. I’m still searching my memory for specific examples / situations, though …

After the discussion, it was time to go downstairs to the view the exhibition. To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed with how the literary side of the exhibition was presented. They basically printed out all the written pieces on plain A4 paper and put them all together in plastic-comb binding which was hanging from the wall next to the exhibited photographs. A random passer-by would probably think it was the Fire Safety Manual or something. I really doubt that anyone actually read it, so it’s a shame the curator didn’t try to make the presentation more inviting …  They could have displayed the papers on a wall properly, or they could have invited the writers to do readings. Even the free promotional bottles of Bernard beer were given more space at the exhibition that the writers! So again, the point was somewhat Lost …