Ambassador Libor Sečka stressed the importance of art as a vehicle for mutual communication and dialogue. He introduced several projects that are under preparation in the framework of the already well-known “embassyart艺馆” programme: exhibition of the artistic duo Jiří Straka and A Qin, concert of the Czech piano virtuoso Pavel Kašpar, and the May inauguration of the first-ever exhibition of a Czech female artist in Beijing, Mrs. Zdena Šafka Řeháková.

Director of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) Fan Di’an called the Czech Embassy in Beijing “a true embassy of art and culture”. He expressed his appreciation for the traditional cooperation of his institution with the Czech Embassy and art institutions in the Czech Republic and explained why he decided to co-organize an exhibition of the Czech classical master Bohuslav Reynek in NAMOC’s exhibition halls (the opening will take place on April 30, 2012). Zdeněk Sklenář, long-term initiator and promoter of Czech-Chinese cultural dialogue, then, along with others, introduced the upcoming unique exhibition of Milan Grygar in Beijing’s Today Art Museum (opening on May 27,2012).

Jiří Straka together with A Qin presented to the audience their project of opening a new space for encounters with the art of their two countries – the Czech-Chinese Contemporary (CCC) – on May 28, 2012 in the Songzhuang District of Beijing.