Česko-německé kulturní jaro 2017 Deutsch-Tschechischer Kulturfrühling 2017

Twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Czech-German Declaration is something like two countries renewing their vows. And especially if you see national borders – and borders in general, between social groups or art fields – as a wound that needs to be sutured and healed, the friendly celebration of cultural exchange in the form of "Cultural Spring" is needed more than anytime in recent history. As the full name of the project, whether in Czech or German, and set in the tiniest font, would reach from Lipník to Leipzig and from Roztoky to Rostock, we shortened it to the simple observation that when the word "Deutsch" loses its "u", you end up with the beginnings of both national denominations: Deutsch and Tschechisch already exist in itself. The visuals then, as a neighborly outpour of feelings should, master the most current language – the language of electronic communication, emoticons. The literal and popular emoticons balance the austerity of the logotype just as the program promoting interaction, innovation, participation, creativity and visibility (put together by the foreign ministries of the two countries, the Czech Ministry of Culture, the Goethe-Institut and The Czech-German Fund for the Future), juxtaposes the Prague exhibition of the prominent German painter Gerhard Richter with youth exchanges, football matches and small-town fairs. In that way the emoticons also speak the interconnection of high and low cultures and overall understandability, warmth and inclusion. The German eagle suddenly chats playfully like a parrot and the last time the Czech lion was so nice to someone was when Bruncvík, the mythical Bohemian knight inspired by the Saxonian and Bavarian knight Henry the Lion of Brunswick, helped him kill a seven-headed dragon. The spring blossoming of international relations (twenty years is hopefully just the beginning) is symbolized by a crocus and a note on the main poster represents the long line of original emoticons prepared for all the different types of actions planned.