Let’s get straight to it, before we divert you
Full-day festival passes:
- Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 550 CZK / day
- Sunday: 450 CZK / day
With a full-day pass, you get free entry on that day to: all festival events, all DOX exhibitions, the Gulliver Airship, all open workshops for children and adults, film screenings and VR projects. (Ticket does not cover the creative workshops such as Architecture of Stories, Poeti(h)cs of Space and Visual Storytelling.)
It is also possible to purchase tickets for individual events.
Are you a member of the DOX Club? You can enjoy free admission to all exhibitions, guided tours, all open workshops for children and adults as well as family workshops, all film screenings and VR projects, and you also get a 30% discount on the rest of the programme.
DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
Poupětova 1, Prague 7
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FALL IS IN THE AIR!
Join us for FALL: Festival of Arts, Literature & Learning
FALL will bring together writers, poets, visual artists, and other creative minds to discuss and celebrate the power of literature, storytelling, art, and our need for empathy in the digital age.
Alongside talks and discussions, the festival will feature an exhibition, guided tours and workshops with artists and writers, family programmes, and also creative interdisciplinary workshops for students and the general public (aged 5 to 105) that will explore the multilayered relationship between literature, the visual arts, photography, architecture, and other art forms.
Festival focus: Empathy in digital times
In today’s click culture of emails, tweets, and AI-written texts, with our attention span and capacity for concentrated reading quickly diminishing, are we slowly, gradually, and willingly sacrificing our literary culture? Should we embrace or resist the oncoming digital advances that might affect the way we read literature and experience art – the very cultural activities that make us human?
The first edition of FALL: Festival of Arts, Literature & Learning will celebrate and discuss the role of literature in the digital age as:
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a space for imagination and developing empathy
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one of the most common denominators of human experience, transcending the limits of ideology, gender, and race
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an irreplaceable practice for the formation of citizens in a democratic society
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a portable universe
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a refuge
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a passion
FALL. IN LOVE WITH STORIES.
Festival Programme
Wednesday 13 Sep 2023
Story Exchange
The educational programme Story Exchange for schools using Narrative 4 methodologies is offered in the FALL festival in three dates with discussion. Special guests Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan will share essential experiences.
Festival Opening: Why We Need Stories
Are we slowly, gradually, and willingly sacrificing our literary culture? Why do we need literature in the digital age anyway? Writer Bianca Bellová will discuss these questions with Professor Maryanne Wolf, followed by a debate among our distinguished guests.
Exhibition Opening: Beyond Words
Join us for the opening of the exhibition Beyond Words. Meet the artists and enjoy the performance of the rapper duo Genius and Genius (Anna Beata Háblová & Martin Kyšperský) with their unique repertoire establishing a new style of poetrycore.
Thursday 14 Sep 2023
Story Exchange
The educational programme Story Exchange for schools using Narrative 4 methodologies is offered in the FALL festival in three dates with discussion. Special guests Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan will share essential experiences.
Poet(h)ics of Space
Join this special creative writing workshop on board the Gulliver Airship with poet and prose author Aleš Šteger, one of the most prominent European literary voices today! Your words will be both words and images
Beyond Words
Image and word. Art and literature. They each have their own territories, their own maps and cartographies. The exhibition Beyond Words aims to explore some of these inspirations and to show how literary culture finds an echo in the works of visual artists today.
The Infamous Beauty exhibition with curator
The work of the renowned American photographer Andres Serrano deals with social issues, sexuality, racial intolerance and dark aspects of human being. Join curator Otto M. Urban for a guided tour through both parts of the exhibition: a set of 60 works entitled Beauty.
The Title of the Book
The title is part of a book’s face, and encountering this face is like a finger wandering on a map of an unknown island. In this art workshop for children and adults aged 5 and up, we will try to combine imagination, the artistic possibilities of different materials and long-lost books.
Matteo Pericoli: Literary Architecture
We often hear that stories have an internal structure or architecture. What do we mean by that? Can you build a story? Architect, illustrator, and teacher Matteo Pericoli founded the Laboratory of Literary Architecture, a fascinating project exploring literature as architecture.
Architecture of Stories
Have you ever thought of literature as architecture? What is the “architecture of a story”? How does it stand? Can it be built? Join architect, illustrator, teacher Matteo Pericoli and architect, poet, and visual artist Anna Beata Háblová in this exciting exploration of literature as architecture.
Empathy as a tool and goal
Experience the story as the international project Narrative 4 works with it. For educators, we have prepared a lecture by Irish trainers of the Narrative 4 methodology and a discussion with Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan.
Words to Wake You Up
How can writers respond to a variety of contemporary issues and future crises? Writers Radka Denemarková and Liz Jensen, along with Professor Morten L. Kringelbach aboard the Gulliver Airship, will discuss the power of literature and narrative to enable us to survive.
Colum McCann: Apeirogon
DOX presents the long-awaited launch of the Czech edition of a novel that conquered the world. Colum McCann’s most ambitious work to date, Apeirogon – named for a polygon with an infinite number of sides – celebrates the power of stories, friendship, and humanity.
Friday 15 Sep
Story Exchange
The educational programme Story Exchange for schools using Narrative 4 methodologies is offered in the FALL festival in three dates with discussion. Special guests Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan will share essential experiences.
Poet(h)ics of Space
Join this special creative writing workshop on board the Gulliver Airship with poet and prose author Aleš Šteger, one of the most prominent European literary voices today! Your words will be both words and images
Beyond Words
Image and word. Art and literature. They each have their own territories, their own maps and cartographies. The exhibition Beyond Words aims to explore some of these inspirations and to show how literary culture finds an echo in the works of visual artists today.
VR: Cosmogonic & Notes on Blindness
Two unique VR projects address, each from a different angle, how new technologies relate to the theme of humanity. While in Cosmogonic the VR headset is a gateway to a dystopian future, Notes on Blindness by contrast shows VR technology as a path to deeper understanding between people.
Architecture of Stories
Have you ever thought of literature as architecture? What is the “architecture of a story”? How does it stand? Can it be built? Join architect, illustrator, teacher Matteo Pericoli and architect, poet, and visual artist Anna Beata Háblová in this exciting exploration of literature as architecture.
Beyond Words with curator
Join curator Michaela Šilpochová for a guided tour of the exhibition Beyond Words in which works of twelve contemporary visual artists raise some questions about the nature of our literary culture.
Storybox
Just as there is a story behind every picture, the right picture can illuminate (illustrate) the narrative. Art workshop for children and adults aged 5 and up for the exhibition Behind the Words. Discover the artist in you – come tell, create, narrate.
Stefano Carini: Visual Storytelling as Empathy Machine?
In this 1 hour presentation independent photography professional Stefano Carini, will bring the audience on a visual journey which starts more than 30.000 years ago, deep into the mountains of western Europe, South Africa and Indonesia where our ancestors left some of the first images known to us: they were the first visual storytellers, the first artists.
Visual Storytelling
Join this interactive and radically empathic experimental workshop led by independent photography professional Stefano Carini. The workshop is dedicated to visual storytellers, image makers, photographers, and anyone who has an interest in the image and telling stories through photography.
Aleš Šteger: Neverend
On board the airship Gulliver, Aleš Šteger, one of the most prominent European literary voices of our time, will present his latest novel Neverend.
ART/ificial: Art, Literature & Artificial Intelligence
The impact of AI on the art world is no longer fiction. How is AI affecting literature, art and human creativity today and what can the future bring? If art and literature is how we express our humanity, where does AI fit in?
Slam Poetry Night
Slam poetry. A genre on the border between poetry, theatre, and figure skating. A genre of performative poetry. Sometimes also an elocutionary contest or rhyming stand-up. Any label you try to give it will be wrong. To know what it is, you have to experience it!
Saturday 16 Sep
Poet(h)ics of Space
Join this special creative writing workshop on board the Gulliver Airship with poet and prose author Aleš Šteger, one of the most prominent European literary voices today! Your words will be both words and images
Architecture of Stories
Have you ever thought of literature as architecture? What is the “architecture of a story”? How does it stand? Can it be built? Join architect, illustrator, teacher Matteo Pericoli and architect, poet, and visual artist Anna Beata Háblová in this exciting exploration of literature as architecture.
Visual Storytelling
Join this interactive and radically empathic experimental workshop led by independent photography professional Stefano Carini. The workshop is dedicated to visual storytellers, image makers, photographers, and anyone who has an interest in the image and telling stories through photography.
Beyond Words
Image and word. Art and literature. They each have their own territories, their own maps and cartographies. The exhibition Beyond Words aims to explore some of these inspirations and to show how literary culture finds an echo in the works of visual artists today.
VR: Cosmogonic & Notes on Blindness
Two unique VR projects address, each from a different angle, how new technologies relate to the theme of humanity. While in Cosmogonic the VR headset is a gateway to a dystopian future, Notes on Blindness by contrast shows VR technology as a path to deeper understanding between people.
Andres Serrano's Literary Inspiration
The work of the renowned American photographer Andres Serrano deals with social issues, sexuality, racial intolerance and dark aspects of human being. Join curator Otto M. Urban for a guided tour through both parts of the Infamous Beauty exhibition: a set of 60 works entitled Beauty, which feature a cross-section of the artist's oeuvre, and the more recent, complete series Infamous from 2019. The tour will be accompanied by reading of poems written by Andres Serrano himself!
Recycliterature
An open art workshop for children aged 7 and up and adults, where we will breathe new life into discarded printed materials. We will focus on collage - combining text and photographic reproduction. By linking originally unrelated and fragmented texts and images, new, bizarre, humorous situations will be created.
The Universe of Art
An open art workshop for children aged 5 and up and adults relating to the book The universe of art and the current exhibitions of the DOX Centre.
Literature on Film: Leonora addio
Three years after the loss of his brother Vittorio, with whom he shared his entire career, Paolo Taviani returns to the works of Luigi Pirandello, the Italian playwright, novelist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Matters of the Heart: Denemarková, Bellová, Šteger
We all have our favourite stories. Even writers themselves have their favourite writers – and their own particular literary matters of the heart. In this programme, our festival guests will share their favourite stories. Do you want to know what Bianca Bellová, Radka Denemarková, and Aleš Šteger enjoy reading?
Literature on Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
True story. A novel written with an "eye" and brought to the screen. The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, is based on a book by the real-life story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. After a sudden stroke, he becomes paralysed.
How to Write About War
Czech writers reflect on Russian aggression in Ukraine in many different ways. Is direct experience of war necessary for an artistic reflection on it? What role does empathy play in this process? Join us for an author reading and discussion aboard the airship Gulliver.
Dehnel, Němec: The Art of Writing on Art
How do writers bring the life and work of famous artists onto the page? How do they transform the composition, texture, paint or light into words? Jacek Dehnel and Jan Němec in conversation with Blanka Činátlová.
Apeirogon: A True Story
Colum McCann in conversation with Rami Elhanan and Bassam Aramin, the main protagonists of his celebrated Apeirogon. Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. Their worlds fall apart after the conflict claims the lives of their daughters: ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers.
Fireside Storytelling
When was the last time you could listen to stories being told by the campfire? Expect informal atmosphere and shared listening and reading experience. MC: master storyteller Justin Svoboda.
Sunday 17 Sept
Beyond Words
Image and word. Art and literature. They each have their own territories, their own maps and cartographies. The exhibition Beyond Words aims to explore some of these inspirations and to show how literary culture finds an echo in the works of visual artists today.
VR: Cosmogonic & Notes on Blindness
Two unique VR projects address, each from a different angle, how new technologies relate to the theme of humanity. While in Cosmogonic the VR headset is a gateway to a dystopian future, Notes on Blindness by contrast shows VR technology as a path to deeper understanding between people.
Discoveries, Idea, Inspirations
Participants of creative workshops at the FALL festival will share their experiences, discoveries, ideas, and the results of their creative work. What texts, stories, and architectural models did they create in workshops?
Recycliterature
An open art workshop for children aged 7 and up and adults, where we will breathe new life into discarded printed materials. We will focus on collage - combining text and photographic reproduction. By linking originally unrelated and fragmented texts and images, new, bizarre, humorous situations will be created.
The Universe of Art
An open art workshop for children aged 5 and up and adults relating to the book The universe of art and the current exhibitions of the DOX Centre.
Literature on Film: Leonora addio
Three years after the loss of his brother Vittorio, with whom he shared his entire career, Paolo Taviani returns to the works of Luigi Pirandello, the Italian playwright, novelist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Radka Bodzewicz's Literary Inspirations
Join artist Radka Bodzewicz and curator Michaela Šilpochová for a guided tour of the exhibition Beyond Words. During the tour, Bodzewicz will cast some light on her literary inspirations and the way she works with augmented reality.
Literature on Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
True story. A novel written with an "eye" and brought to the screen. The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, is based on a book by the real-life story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. After a sudden stroke, he becomes paralysed.
Matters of the Heart: Dehnel, Němec, Háblová
We all have our favourite stories. Even writers themselves have their favourite writers. In this programme, our festival guests will share their favourite stories. Do you want to know what Jan Němec, Jacek Dehnel, and Anna Beata Háblová enjoy reading?
Jan Vytiska's Literary Inspirations
Wallachian and Nordic legends are among the important inspirations for Jan Vytiska’s original paintings. In this guided tour of his current solo exhibition at DOX, The Ritual of Cursed Hearts, you can listen to the stories that are echoed in his works. With Jan Vytiska and curator Otto M. Urban.
Exhibition Catalogue: The Ritual of Cursed Hearts
The Ritual of Cursed Hearts, the largest solo exhibition of painter Jan Vytiska to date, has its own catalogue! Meet the artist as well as curator Otto M. Urban for the welcome ceremony, which will feature good music, drinks, and Wallachian legends.
We are proud to welcome
Empathy in Education
One of the most important skills in the 21st century is empathy. The literary-educational programmes of DOX, which form an essential part of the FALL festival, focus specifically on its development.
In 2021, DOX focused on a methodology for sharing personal stories inspired by the international educational project N4, co-founded by one of Ireland’s leading literary figures, Colum McCann. We have developed 3 types of interactive workshops designed primarily for schools to develop empathy among students, teachers, and school teams. As part of DOX’s multi-genre programme, we are extending the N4 methodology to include deeper interconnections with other artistic disciplines - visual arts and literature.
Programme for students and pedagogues
General Partner
Partners
With support