Mushrooms, circularity, Hong Kong neon, and Australian punk. In September, Hybernská will bring together contemporary art, sustainability themes, music, and community programming, and on October 1st, to mark the start of the new semester, the HYB4 Art Studios will open their doors for the first time.
On the very first weekend of September, we will host Czech Fungi Fest (September 5th and 6th), the largest mushroom festival in the Czech Republic, which annually connects a community of enthusiasts with experts, artists, and business professionals. The program will feature a mushroom exhibition, the opening of the Mushrooms in Art exhibition, lectures, workshops, mushroom markets, and live music.
Immediately following, on September 10th and 11th, comes Festival Dokola, the first festival of its kind in the country dedicated to the circular economy, organized by INCIEN, which is celebrating its eleventh anniversary this year. You can experience what circularity means in practice firsthand: from repairing broken appliances and crafting furniture from scrap wood to a fashion show featuring upcycled materials. The program will also include a talk show with festival ambassador Jitka Nováčková and a number of other guests. Admission to most of the program is free.
Opening of the exhibition The Third Landscape by Vladimír Houdek will take place on September 11th at 6:00 PM, and the exhibition will be open in the C.0 HYB4 Gallery until October 24th. This new exhibition project by one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Czech painting stems from a long-term dialogue
with art history and the Romantic landscape painting of Caspar David Friedrich, where the landscape in Houdek’s canvases becomes more than just a backdrop; it is a space where memory, time, and the evolving relationship between humanity and the surrounding world intertwine in every piece. The exhibition is curated by Filip Kazda.
As part of Prague Art Week (September 24th–27th), Hong Kong artists Jive Lau Ho-Fai and Mari Liew Yu-Lin, who are in residence at Hybernská in collaboration with the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Hong Kong and Macau from mid-September to the end of October, will host an Open Studio in the HYB4 Art Studios. Jive Lau is the founder of the neon studio Kowloneon, which bridges traditional Hong Kong neon craftsmanship with design and contemporary art. Mari Liew Yu-Lin is a painter who draws from dreams and travel experiences, creating work that tells stories on the border between fantasy and reality. A guided tour of the exhibition with Vladimír Houdek and curator Filip Kazda will take place on September 26th at 6:00 PM, followed at 7:00 PM by a Cocktail Network Event with Hong Kong residents, offering an opportunity for the Prague and Hong Kong art communities to meet informally.
The music season kicks off on September 10th with the sixth installment of the regular Hybrid Sessionsseries, a monthly evening of live improvisation where musicians from different scenes meet to play together for the first time, featuring New York-based visual artist and musician Michael Delia and Dresden saxophonist Hartmut Dorschner.
On September 17th, Klára Vytiskováreturns, fresh from winning an Anděl award for Solo Artist of the Year for her album VEGA. Following last year’s launch at Hybernská, she returns as an established star with the energy of a punk club, a touch of 70s vinyl, and lyrics that make it clear from the first listen that she never confuses authenticity with perfection. On September 19th, they will bring Pork Comets new music video premiere, on September 24th the indie-folk duo Jiný metro will perform alongside the Irish band The Ocelots and on September 29th, the Australian post-punk band Split Systemwill arrive from Melbourne, having supported The Hives last year, topped the ARIA charts, and been featured regularly in Pitchfork, Stereogum, and Brooklyn Vegan.
As part of Climate Week Prague, two afternoon programs will take place on September 15th and 16th, dedicated to climate adaptation in Prague and the future of urban transport.
For European Day of Languages, on September 23rd, we are hosting two events at the Campus. Throughout the day, you can try out mini-lessons in Hungarian, Finnish, Northern Sami, Catalan, and other less common languages, participate in speak-dating, or listen to readings in various European languages. In the evening, there will be a panel discussion titled Languages Known and Unknown: From Romani to Cryptolects, which will explore minority languages as well as intentionally closed linguistic varieties used by various communities as coded communication. Experts from linguistics and related fields will open up questions of identity, cultural specifics, and state-initiated regulation of minority languages.
The 50th anniversary of the underground trial will be commemorated on September 24 by the Memory of Nations Institute with a discussion featuring witnesses František "Čuňas" Stárek and Josef Janíček, moderated by Lucie Vopálenská from Czech Radio.
On September 25, from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, Science Night at Didaktikon will offer families with children aged four and up interactive chemistry experiments, a physics lab, real dinosaur bones and trilobite fossils, and the fascinating world of insects, including mantises, ants, and Růženka the spider. That same evening, the Campus will host a special edition of Charles University Science Café dedicated to linguistics and neuroscience: an informal discussion with leading experts, for which advance registration is recommended.
On September 30, the reading room will host a discussion on feminist comics and their ability to transform personal experiences with the body, relationships, or gender stereotypes into political topics. The starting point will be the work of Liv Strömquist and Alison Bechdel, though the debate will also offer a broader perspective on the forms of feminist comics both here and abroad.
The Circular Workshop continues its series of workshops How to Get By Without a Handyman, in collaboration with in collaboration with the SheBuilds project, to which new workshops are being added: linocut basics (Sept 23), Bluetooth speaker making (Oct 7) and woodworking basics (Oct 14). You can also easily book your time in the circular workshop just for yourself.
We are kicking off the new semester on October 1st, which will also feature the first HYB4 Art Studios Open House. Nine artists and collectives who were awarded studios in the center of Prague this year, along with curatorial support and access to the exhibition program, will be opening their doors for the first time. We will publish the detailed opening program in the coming days.
Starting October 20, we are launching the lecture series Mirrors of the Mind, which Kamila Ženatá has this time focused on shamanic traditions and their overlaps with modern psychotherapy. The speakers will share not only their professional expertise but also personal experiences from their journeys of discovery: Eva Césarová: Psychedelic Journeys Within (Oct 20), Rita Kočárová: Psychedelics between tradition and the future (Oct 27), Dagmar Civišová: Kambo Frog (Nov 3) and Yvonna Lucká: There and Back Again (Nov 10).
You can now also find a photo booth at Kampus. Classic photo booths are making a huge comeback all over the world, becoming popular spots in many cities where people go for a shared experience and a unique souvenir. Now you can try this little photographic ritual at Hybernská too. Grab your friends, family, or someone you want a keepsake with, and take home a photo from Kampus that exists beyond the screen.
A BuddyMat, a vending machine for feminine hygiene products, is now available in the restrooms for whenever you might need one.
Information about individual events can be found on our website. You can follow the latest news from Kampus on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Wishing you a wonderful autumn!
