Are public holidays more than just days off for us? Terén launched the STÁTKY series.
Terén has launched a new year-long series on Czech public holidays. Which of them can we truly experience? What role do memory and cultural organizations, schools, churches, the media, and even shopping centers play in them? What do we actually celebrate on public holidays? The fact that we don't have to go to work? And what if we go anyway? What stories do we tell ourselves on important dates?
Subversive New Year's Eve
At the turn of 2026, we launched the STÁTKY series at Terén, which critically examines the social significance of Czech public holidays and offers an artistic reinterpretation of their content. We kicked off this series of hybrid events, mutated celebrations, and subversive jibes with a New Year's Eve stream, which you can still watch on the Terén website.
New Year's Eve party attendees
Photo: Chantal Gál, Terén
The New Year's video work relates to the national holidays of New Year's Day and the Day of the Restoration of the Independent Czech State. As the opening event of the entire series, it allows viewers to delve a little deeper into its themes and offers a key to understanding the intention of the entire STÁTKY project. It combines a professional approach with relaxed freestyle and a documentary format of talking heads with live coverage of a New Year's Eve party. It was created by a team of authors consisting of Kristýna Businská, Libor Brzobohatý, Matyáš Dlab, and Anna Prstková.
New Year's Eve party attendees
Photo: Chantal Gál, Terén
Terén invited experts and artists to participate in the filming, who expressed their views on national holidays from the perspective of their field and personal experience. Their contributions range from stories to critical commentary to songs. Art historian Milena Bartlová contributed her critical view of the current set of holidays and identified some of its problems, including the fact that on October 28, we celebrate the founding of a state that no longer exists.
Historian of food Martin Franc explained how lentils with smoked pork came to be served on New Year's tables, while also outlining the role of the middle-class lifestyle in the concept of cultural transformation in Czechoslovak society after 1945. Another guest was Jindřich Forejt, former director of the protocol department of the Office of the President of the Republic, who shared his personal experience with the speeches given on October 28 and January 1 by Presidents Václav Havel, Václav Klaus, and Miloš Zeman.
New Year's Eve party attendees
Photo: Chantal Gál, Terén
And then there is the other side of the broadcast: the Megafun sound system duo of Michal Mitro and Ludmila Jankovichová, songs by Samčo, brother of dážďovky, or the theme of the solstice practice by Erik Sikora, alias Džumelec. During the stream, we celebrated the turn of the year with a close circle of friends from Terén – and the live-recorded party at the Klub zastupitelů in Brno was hosted by Zuzana Fuksová.
Design, architecture, and subcultural elements
We consider public holidays — i.e., days off work designated by the state to commemorate important dates — to be an important tool for how the state works with memory and identity. Simply put, holidays are public "events" through which the state shows what it considers important and what citizens should identify with. But what values might our society actually agree on in 2026?
We realize that how we actually experience these days off is often quite different from the official meanings of the holidays. Moreover, we have doubts about whether many holidays still make sense today—and sometimes we even encounter obstacles that prevent us from establishing a personal relationship with them. The aim of this series is therefore to enable those who are looking for a different way of experiencing public holidays to reflect on them, focus on their new interpretation, or recognize marginalized themes in them.
New Year's Eve party attendees
Photo: Chantal Gál, Terén
During 2026, Terén, together with selected teams, will organize eight events that will take place at the Brno Representatives' Club on public holidays (in the case of Easter and Christmas, Terén chose Palm Sunday, March 29, and the fourth Sunday of Advent, December 20, for the events; none of the submitted concepts were selected for the public holiday commemorating the burning of Master Jan Hus). The theme calls for an interdisciplinary approach, so the teams that have applied and the forms their STÁTKY take are diverse: we will meet theater groups, but also designers, artists and activists, architects, and subcultural elements.
You can watch the recording of the first episode of STÁTKY – New Year on Vimeo or YouTube of STÁTKY. We recommend it for these foggy days.
We look forward to seeing you on March 29, Palm Sunday, at the Easter meeting with the design studio besiidka at the Representatives' Club!