Czech Center Seoul opens today

By Kim Se-jeong

The Czech Center Seoul opens today to promote Czech culture and tourism in Korea.

It is the 22nd overseas branch and only the fourth outside Europe — the others are in New York, Tokyo and Tel Aviv.

This will be the fifth independent European cultural promotional body in Korea after the British Council, the Goethe Institut, the Institut Francais and the Italian Cultural Institute.

Michaela Lee, the head of the center, and Petra Hovorkova, her deputy, who will be in charge of operations, are excited about their new endeavor.

“This will be the place where people meet Czech culture,” Lee told The Korea Times.

The center is located on the top floor of Castle Praha, a restaurant in the Hongdae area of Seoul.

The building’s facade is a replica of the medieval Old Town City Hall in Prague, a city the restaurant owner is fond of.

The center will house books and information on the culture and history of the Czech Republic. It will also have small rotating exhibitions and film screenings among other activities. Jan Saudek’s photographs will be the first to be exhibited in mid-May.

Another important job of the center will be to find local partners for cultural projects as seen by the Czech contemporary art exhibition held at the museum at Deoksu Palace in the heart of the capital.

The DongA Ilbo, Korean Air, POSCO and KT Corp. were major partners of the exhibition that closed two Sundays ago.

For both Lee and Hovorkova, the language barrier will be a little problem.

Lee has a degree in Korean studies, and speaks Korean quite fluently. She also has a Korean husband, and lived in Korea intermittently.

Hovorkova has been studying the language since 2011 when she began her studies in comparative literature at Seoul National University.

Czech Ambassador to Korea Jaroslav Olsa, Jr., recognized the language skill as a tremendous help.

The center is a mission accomplished for Olsa, who is leaving this summer.

He said the Czech Center was on his mind when he arrived. The opening of the center comes at a peak in Czech-Korea relations.

Although disputable, the relations had its take-off with “Lovers in Prague,” the title of a TV soap opera aired in 2005.

It was so successful that it instantly made Prague one of the major European destinations for Korean tourists, and fueled commercial interest.

Now, Korea is the Czech Republic’s third-largest trading partner outside Europe, overtaking Japan. Hyundai’s automobile factory there assembles 300,000 cars annually.

Korean Air has recently become the second-largest shareholder of Czech Airlines, the national carrier — the Czech government is the biggest shareholder.

And the Czech government will soon open a tourism promotion office in Seoul.

Olsa’s hopes are high that the center will create new momentum for the 23 years of relations between the two countries.

Upcoming events and other notices can be found on the center’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/CzechCentreSeoul) and its website (https://seoul.czechcentres.cz).