2024-09-21 12:16:38
A new cultural place for the young generation called the Third Space, which is supposed to serve ideas and experiments across different disciplines, was launched this Thursday by the organization Archa+. With this, she opened a new season in the hall formerly known as the Archa Theatre. The audience will be offered concerts, debates and workshops.
According to program curator Štěpán Kubišta, the Czech Republic lacked a cultural institution focused on topics that interest young people. “After Ondřej Hrab approached me to come up with a concept for the continuation of the Archa Theater with the assignment that it be something different from the current theater, I was already toying with the idea that none of the big theaters in Prague are dedicated to the young generation,” he describes.
According to Kubišta, the specific topics that this target group enjoys or interests include, for example, gender, innovation, artificial intelligence or ecology. They want to focus on them.
However, the third space does not only serve young people. Kubišta would like them to be involved in the creation as well. “Our goal is to create a structure, auxiliary organizational and spatial, where we will also attract projects that young people will do themselves,” he says.
An example of such a project can be the first major theatrical premiere, which Archa+ is preparing for the end of October. “We made an open call where we broadcast an offer for young people to send us a video where they say why they enjoy the theater, what they enjoy and why they would like to get involved. We came across several hundred videos from which the creators of the production chose several dozens of people with whom they continuously create shows. Some will even perform in them,” Kubišta adds.
The space is managed by Jindřich Krippner, according to whom the idea of the project is to “be an expert” on the young generation in all possible areas, but through culture. “The goal is not only to represent young people, but also to encourage them to get closer to culture,” he adds.
Archa Theater was run by Ondřej Hrab for many years. Its last season was closed last year on December 18 and 19 by the Japanese dancer Min Tanaka. From this year, the space is called Archa+ and its direction is given by Kubišta, who has managed the New Stage of the National Theater in Prague since 2014 and later headed the Jatka78 complex in the Holešovice market or the seasonal bar Přístav 18600 and the Fuchs2 club. On the website, the operators describe Archa+ as multifunctional and multicultural, aimed at young people. This Friday, there is a concert by the Irish folk quartet Lankum, followed by a celebration of the late eightieth birthday of poet and Czech underground personality Ivan Martin Jirous on Saturday.
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The concert itself can even make me cry, Albert Romanutti, frontman of the Czech band Bert & Friends, said in the Spotlight program. | Video: Team Spotlight