Creative workshop for the Velvet Carnival

Register Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

Olga Věra CIESLAROVÁ, Filip NOVÁK

Department

The subject provides Department of Authorial Creativity and Pedagogy

Contents

Let’s form a clique for this year’s Velvet Carnival! This allegorical parade originated at KATaP DAMU and each year addresses current social issues with humour, irony and satire through a visually and performatively conceived procession (www.sametoveposviceni.cz). Students, artists, NGO representatives and members of other civic initiatives work together during the preparations; on 17 November the parade moves through the centre of Prague and is seen by thousands of spectators.

In 2026, the Creative Workshop will take place for the third time as an interdisciplinary and interfaculty seminar. It brings together students from different artistic and academic disciplines and faculties. At the same time, this year we will take part in the jubilee 15th edition of the Velvet Carnival.

IMPORTANT: THE SEMINAR WILL BE CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH ONLY.

Participation in the workshop will take the following form:

1. Together we will identify a theme that we consider pressing in contemporary society.
2. We will discuss how to translate this theme into a visual and performative form using humour, irony and satire.
3. In the Velvet Carnival workshops we will make masks, costumes and an illuminated construction, create a pamphlet, and develop the musical and performative form of the clique.
4. We will bring the theme we have developed together to life in the streets of Prague during the Velvet Carnival parade on 17 November.
5. After the event, we will reflect together on the entire process and the resulting performance.

Course organisation. The first meeting will take place on Wednesday, 7 October 2026. After that, we will meet regularly on Wednesday evenings. During the first phase we will introduce the Velvet Carnival, search for a theme, conduct research and develop its visual and performative treatment. In the following weeks, part of the work will move to the Velvet Carnival workshops.

Students should also expect additional workshop sessions before the event, especially in the final weeks before 17 November, when masks, costumes, constructions and the overall performance will be completed. Because the course is concentrated into the first half of the semester, it will finish earlier than regular semester teaching. After the parade on 17 November, there will be only one final meeting.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the seminar is both to prepare an actual performance for the Velvet Carnival and to reflect on this public festivity as a whole. We will create together, while also engaging theoretically with symbolic action in public space, the role of public rituals, and the ways in which different artistic disciplines can contribute to their creation.

By taking part in the seminar and completing the whole process, including participation in the parade, students will develop the ability to critically assess symbolic action – to recognise and clearly articulate what works in a particular symbolic communication and what does not. They will learn to create symbolic images actively and to work with them while understanding both the possibilities and the limits of symbolic communication. They will also gain practical experience of collective creation, dramaturgy, artistic work in public space, and the translation of social issues into visual and performative language.

The course therefore also offers experience that can later be used in future editions of the Velvet Carnival, for example in the role of dramaturg or collaborator with individual cliques.

Prerequisites and other requirements

Students from all disciplines and faculties are welcome. Previous experience in visual art, theatre or performance is not required. What matters is a willingness to take an active part in a collective creative process and to participate in the parade on 17 November.

The course is taught in English only.

Literature

Required: All participants must watch the short video lecture by Assoc. Prof. Radek Chlup, “Satire vs. Caricature in the Velvet Carnival”, which introduces work with symbolic imagery in the Velvet Carnival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tutzoVf4vpM

Optional recommended reading:

• Ronald L. Grimes, “Ritual in Prague’s Velvet Carnival,” TDR: The Drama Review 61, no. 3 (2017): 56–71.
• Alena Rybníčková, Radek Chlup, Martin Pehal and Evelyne Koubková, Happening: Mezi záměrem a hrou, Prague: AMU, 2015, pp. 133–188 (especially Radek Chlup’s chapter “Symbolická účinnost v Sametovém posvícení”).
• Olga Cieslarová, Když zlost tančí: Basilejská Fasnacht a pražské Sametové posvícení, doctoral dissertation, Department of Authorial Creation and Pedagogy, DAMU, 2018.
• Martin Pehal and Barry Stephenson, “If Not Now – When? If Not Us – Who?: Symbolic Nodes and Performative Modes of the ‘Velvet Revolution’ Celebrations (17 November 1989) in Contemporary Czechia.”

Evaluation methods and criteria

Students earn 3 credits for:

1. active participation in the main seminar activities and the creative process; a maximum of two absences from interim meetings is allowed, but not from key final activities or the parade itself;
2. active participation in the Velvet Carnival parade on 17 November 2026;
3. timely submission of a final written reflection on this year’s parade.

1-credit participation option

For students who do not wish to complete the full 3-credit seminar, there is also a simpler 1-credit option. A separate course is listed under the title:

Mask in the Velvet Carnival Parade

In this option, the student primarily makes their own mask and takes part in the Velvet Carnival parade on 17 November. It is therefore not necessary to complete the full process of theme development, dramaturgy and clique preparation required for the 3-credit seminar.

Note

The first meeting will take place on Wednesday, 7 October 2026. We will then meet regularly on Wednesday evenings. At the first meeting, we will introduce the Velvet Carnival, the participants and the working process, and carry out the first collective brainstorming session for this year’s theme. The exact time and location of the first and subsequent meetings will be specified.

In addition to the regular Wednesday meetings, students should expect additional work sessions in the Velvet Carnival workshops before 17 November, particularly during the final production phase. After the Velvet Carnival on 17 November, there will be only one final reflective meeting, after which the course will conclude.

PLEASE NOTE: THE ENTIRE SEMINAR WILL BE CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH ONLY.

If you cannot attend the first meeting, please contact: olga@sametoveposviceni.cz

Further information

This course is an elective for all AMU students

Schedule for winter semester 2026/2027:

• Week view
• List

Schedule for summer semester 2026/2027:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Authorial Acting in English (B.A.) (Elective subjects)
• Authorial Acting (M.A.) (Elective subjects)
• Authorial Acting (M.A.) (Elective subjects)
• Authorial Acting (M.A.) (Elective subjects)
• Authorial Acting (B.A.) (Elective subjects)