“The cultural performance at the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair is a tribute reserved specifically for the Guest of Honour. Thanks to this, Czech literature and music will come into the spotlight of many prominent international media outlets and both professional and general audiences, who follow this prestigious global event with great interest,” says Tomáš Kubíček, Director General of the Moravian Regional Library and Director of the Czechia 2026 project, highlighting the significance of our artists’ participation. “Based on an agreement with the Frankfurt Book Fair, the project’s artistic advisory board submitted five nominations. The fair’s management then selected two representatives from the Czech Republic. The musical performance was developed during joint discussions with the artistic directors of the gala evening. A major factor in this was the selection of an artist with international reach,” adds Martin Krafl, director of the Czech Literary Center and program director of Czechia 2026, regarding the selection.
“A dispute arose between Shakespeare and one of his sharpest contemporaries, Johnson, when Johnson criticized him for being a poor poet and for not even knowing that Bohemia does not lie by the sea. Everyone knows that Bohemia does not lie by the sea. Yet this is an expression of hope that art can freely transcend all boundaries. Yes, Bohemia lies by the sea, and that says it all. In our European space, a wide variety of events have overlapped, and Bohemia has been poetically shifted to the sea. Trauma is the air of Europe. But literature exists. Literature as humanism—the hope we live by. A person without books is blind,” says Radka Denemarková at the opening.
“Performing at the fair’s opening is a great honor for me, but also a challenge and a responsibility. I will not be there just for myself, but also on behalf of all my colleagues in the literary community. I hope that participation in the fair will open new doors and opportunities for Czech literature as a whole. I really like the image of the Czech Republic as a country on the coast. For me, the sea is synonymous with openness and distant horizons. This image offers an unusual perspective and sparks the imagination. The impossible suddenly becomes possible. And that, in my opinion, is the essence of literature and art in general,” says Marie Iljašenko.