Voices From the Center: Central Europeans Reflect on Life Before and After the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Lecture by Janeil Engelstad

Thursday, March 25, 7 pm
Czech Center New York

Through Voices From the Center,  people’s reflections about life during and after communism have been documented in a stunning web-based project by American artist, Janeil Engelstad. The project also includes lectures and exhibitions throughout Central Europe and the United States.

Voices From the Center stems from a series of interviews that took place with people, over the past three years, in Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary and the Czech Republic about their lives before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The project includes conversations with prominent writers, artists and politicians as well as with villagers from rural areas.

Interviews with artists and other creative people include conversations where they reflected about how and if their creative process changed and how their work has been influenced by the different systems. Many artists contributed work to the project. 

Concurrent with these interviews were conversations with young adults, who had been children when the wall came down, about their views of life in the post-communist era. While some young people relegated communism to the history books, others saw parallels between their own lives and the older generations.

People from both groups talked about what freedom meant to them and had the opportunity to express their dreams, fears and hopes for themselves, their country and the world. Together these conversations begin to create a portrait of a people emerging from one political and cultural era into another.

The talk will include segments from, and reflections about, her interviews with people from all aspects of society as well as people who have played an active role in the political and cultural life of the region. These include: political activists, Fedor Gál (CZ) , Václav Vašků (CZ) “Major” Waldemar Fydrych (PL) and Mikuláš Huba (SK); and artists and cultural figures, Pavla Jonssonová (CZ), Robert Matera (PL), Anna Daučíková (SK) and Miklós Surányi (HU).

Project Partners: The New York Public Library for The Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and Artreach at Lillstreet Learning Center. Project Funders: The American Embassy, Bratislava, Central European Foundation, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Stanica, and Big Media.