Brooklyn Rail: Ostrava Days
Publikováno: 2.10.2025
Ostrava is an old mining town in the northeast of Czechia, very close to the Polish border. Its looming structures squat just outside the city, coal seams untouched since 1994, the gargantuan architecture now existing with a smudged, rust-red beauty and holding renewed interest for weirdo tourists with unusual sooty desires. Ostrava is the Czech Republic’s third largest city, but possesses a very low-key atmosphere of calm, well-suited to lonesome street explorations as darkness falls. It’s only upon entering a bar, or attending a festival concert, that we can view the populace, outside their own doors, socializing. Even the Ostrava weekends are strangely meditational.
The dormant mines are also home to multiple cultural venues, some of which are being used by the lengthy Ostrava Days festival, a smoldering furnace of new music with an emphasis on established experimental figures sharing an environment with emerging student composers. The program will typically combine old “classic” pieces with world premieres, separate days devoted to string quartets, vocal works, electronics, jazz, and improvisation.
Martin Longley, Brooklyn Rail | read the whole article here >>>
