Festival 2024

Press Release July 3, 2024, Prague

4+4 Days in Motion to Center on Hybernská 2

Five international and seven Czech premieres will highlight the 29th annual 4 + 4 Days in Motion contemporary art festival. The center of activity for both the visual art and theatre performances will be at Hybernská 2 in Prague 1. The festival, the theme of which is INNER, will take place from October 4th to 13th, and other festival sites will include Vzlet in Vršovice, the Alfred ve Dvoře theatre, and ARCHA+.

Last year, the festival’s visual art and theatre sections took place at two different times of the year. This year, the festival returns to its unified autumn presentation format. The theatre section of the program features seven Czech and five international premieres. The contemporary physical theatre ensemble Burkicom will present its new production, The Sun, an apocalyptic sci-fi about humanity, an image of the end we want to experience. Jana Látalová, Marta Trpišovská, and Lea Švejdová have assembled the production Standing in Motion, a moving musical expansion into the world of funeral rituals, the tradition of weepers and mourners, in the context of history and the present. Children U is a theatrical multi-genre project supporting children’s palliative care. Performed by the Tantehorse ensemble, it presents an artistic take on the theme of hope for a good life. VOSTO5 will unravel the biggest mystery in radio broadcasting. The Tragedy of Liblice is an amplified mystery-crime combining the traditional poetics of Vosto5 with a Costa-Gavras-esque spy thriller and a subdued TV crime drama. The final premiere of the program comes from the independent art group 8lidi.

Among the international artists, Czech audiences will be introduced to Antoine Defoort from France. According to the newspaper Libération, the play Elles vivent (They Live) is the only theatrical performance about politics that viewers should see now. Mexican Cristina Maldonado invites you to immerse yourself in her work Infinite Game, created from the stories and experiences of people from different countries worldwide. Around a shared table, she invites meditation on everyday practices related to memory, permanence, continuity, and material relations between the living and the dead. Collective memory is the theme of Kono atari no dokoka by French choreographer Martine Pisani and Japanese-Austrian performer Michikazu Matsune, which had its world premiere last year at the Avignon Festival. Norwegian multi-arts collective VERDENSTEATRET will bring an extended film experience, concert, and performance. Belgian ensemble Voetvolk will amaze with the explosive, action-packed painting performance WASCO!, which reveals what freedom would look like if it had a shape from the perspective of children and adolescents.

“International productions and Czech premieres develop original stories in documentary and fictional form, reporting on the contemporary world and reflecting on issues of human existence and social change,” says festival dramaturg Pavel Štorek

The visual art exhibition project Crime Scenes will also take place in Hybernská 2 under the curatorial direction of Kristýna Hájková and Radek Wohlmuth. The program will include guided tours, discussions, and other accompanying events.

FESTIVAL PROGRAM ›

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL | 4 + 4 DAYS IN MOTION | 4. –13. 10. 2024

Since 1996, the goal of the 4+4 Days in Motion festival has been to present contemporary innovative artistic projects. Every year, around 20 groups from all over the world participate. The festival’s specific nature lies primarily in revitalizing Prague architecture through theatre and the presentation of international projects that the Four Days association co-produces.

Festival projects encompass all types of contemporary art (theatre, dance, music, visual art, film, video art). Every year, the festival has a specific theme—its leitmotiv. This year’s theme is INSIDE. The twenty-ninth edition of the festival will take place from October 4th to 13th in the Hybernská 2 building in Prague 1, Vzlet in Vršovice, the Alfred ve Dvoře Theatre, and ARCHA+.

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