On the first Monday in December, dozens of guests, who are at home in multicultural environments, gathered in the festively decorated Art & Event Gallery Black Swan in the Black Swan House. Similar to how a century ago, social salons would be organised in Prague by sought-out individuals from different parts of the world. Danuše Siering, publisher and founder of the Czech-German Salon, greeted guests in style with a rendition of Frederic Chopin’s Lento. According to her, Chopin’s two-hundred-year-old music is in fact contemporary, although its interpretation changes with time: “Although it may seem at times that certain things stay the same, they are actually different. This is a fundamental principle of human existence,” the hostess emphasised at the start of the evening.
N&N Noble Notes
She then went on to relate this to the transformation of the Czech-German Bookmag to an elegant magazine from the heart of Europe, N&N Nobles Notes, whose winter-spring issue has just become available to readers. “Noble Notes is a term that came into being a hundred years ago, when people would write letters, notes, and reminders using a fountain pen on beautiful paper. We are publishing this magazine as if we were writing a letter; slowly, consciously, in a dignified manner, practically meditatively. I have also written a letter to you, which you will find at the very beginning of the magazine. You will find some notepaper inside; perhaps you would like to write a letter to a loved one? Can you still write using a fountain pen? When did you last do so?” The hostess turned to the guests to see if they consider themselves ‘contemporary’ in the hectic present-day.
Embrace Your Age
The first invited guest was 65-year-old Dutch top model and influencer, Petra van Bremen, who outlined her career trajectory, from a former manager to the catwalk, in an engaging discussion. This charming, silver-haired lady rose to fame in interviews and books with her proclamation: “I embrace my age.” What should we take away from this? “Essentially, it’s about every woman finding her own path. This sentence expresses my own personal opinion, which I believe in deeply. I don’t have any issue with my age; I am grateful for it, I have accepted it, and this brought me a great deal of peace. I feel fantastic in my own skin, I live a wonderful life, and this is very important to me. I don’t compare myself to other women, nor do I push myself to look younger than I am. It’s fine as it is,” Petra van Bremen said. Readers can find out more about this ageless woman, who is on the front cover of the latest issue of N&N Noble Notes, in the print interview.
Café Arco Comes Back to Life
Petra van Bremen was followed by another highlight of the night: Art & Event Gallery Black Swan resounded with Czech, German and Jewish songs, interpreted by the charismatic Polish-Czech chanson singer and actress, Renata Drössler, accompanied by Michal Worek on the piano. The artist acquainted guests with her latest musical project, Café Arco, in which she celebrates the legendary Prague café with the same name, where Czech, German and Jewish intellectuals would meet, through jazz and swing songs from the 30s and 40s. “We will evoke this renowned location’s atmosphere of the First Republic in Prague’s Jazz Dock with a partially dramatised night of spoken word and storytelling. At the same time, we don’t want to faithfully recreate the era, but rather sing and play for entertainment and for the soul,” Drössler explained.
Art as a Basic Need
The final, official part of the evening was dedicated to visual arts. Danuše Siering welcomed the Hartmann husband-and-wife duo from Stuttgart to the podium, who have been publishing meticulously prepared, artistic, photographic books since 2016 and are regularly awarded the most prestigious German awards for their work. Markus Hartmann spoke about how they founded the small, family-run publishing house, Hartmann Books, about the significance of books in today’s age, and about the minutiae of publishing. How do they perceive photographic books, and why do we need them today? “We consider photographic books to be books in their essence. Photography is the same language as literature. In the past thirty years, photobooks have grown in popularity. They may be a specialist area of publishing, but still a visible one. Our goal is to support photographers and photos through our publishing,” Markus Hartmann explained. It is considered an honour by artists to have a book published by them. “The question as to whether or not we need photography books today is both right and wrong. It is the same as with art and culture in general: we don’t need them like bread and water. But if we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t live well. We wouldn’t have anything to share. It’s not only a question of luxury, but a basic need,” Angelika Hartmann adds.
The Salon showcased not only elegance, but also a rich soul and a good mood. We need these more today than ever before. Special thanks to the partners of the Czech-German Salon, including the Goethe Institute of Prague, JK Kudláček, sparkling wine producer Aronn methode classique and Sisters in Photography. Two of them, Tereza Jobová and Kateřina Sýsová, have prepared a pop-up exhibition in the Art & Event Gallery.
Photo: Tomáš Železný
