Marie Imbrova, Ph.D. - Official Website - Archive 2010
Press and Media 2010
Press and Media in 2010:
December 2010
Article Title: HOW TO GIVE A GIFT UNDER THE CZECH CHRISTMAS TREE IN THE AFRICAN VILLAGE
Source: MF DNES - The Largest Respectable Newspapers in the Czech Republic, the Usti Region (Northern Bohemia), December 27, 2010, 00:00 a.m./Tomas Kassal
"Marie Imbrova from Cernochov spent as the head of the Czech Embassy already six times Christmas holidays in the tropics. She tells that the greatest gift for Africans is food, as they actually came to the Christmas tradition and how she helps to promote the local artists in the world.
As an employee of the Czech embassies in Kenya and Zimbabwe, Marie Imbrova lived through in Africa six sets of Christmas. Three in Nairobi, three in Harare. For Europeans, Africa's unusual atmosphere of Christmas holidays, she has recalled even this year. She spent one advent week in Dakar, Senegal ..."
You can read the Tomas Kassal's entire article at zpravy.idnes.cz (available in Czech language only).
November 2010
TV Interview: ZIMBABWE - SCULPTURE COMMUNITY IN TENGENENGE
Source: CZECH TELEVISION, Channel CT24, Programme Before Moon - News Block - Continent, November 29, 2010, 10:40 a.m./Patricie Strouhalova
Dr. Marie Imbrova, a former Chargé d'Affaires of the Czech Republic in Zimbabwe, an African studies expert and an African fine arts collector was answering not only the question "Has the Tengenenge Community a chance to survive other years in its own country?" ...
You can see the record of the entire Patricie Strouhalova's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova at www.ceskatelevize.cz (available in Czech language only).
November 2010
Article Title: GHANA PROPOSES REVIVED TRADE - Czech officials look to renew ties as West African nation begins drilling for oil
Source: THE PRAGUE POST - The Czech Republic's English-Language Newspaper, November 24, 2010/Cat Contiguglia
In 1960, Czechoslovakia opened trade relations with Ghana, building a number of factories that remained open only a short time until a 1966 military coup shut them down. Almost 50 years later, the Czech government may help to reopen them after a series of meetings between government officials to boost trade between the two countries.
Ghanaian and Czech government officials and company representatives met November 8 - 12 to discuss a series of proposals to revamp Ghanaian industry and transport and energy infrastructures, but what proposals will be undertaken and when have not yet been made official ...
... Ghanaian and Czech trade relations were originally established under a 1960 trade agreement between the first Ghanaian president, Kwame Nkrumah, and Antonín Novotný, then first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, according to Marie Imbrová, an African studies expert and former diplomat who has written extensively on African history and European relations. Imbrová said that by 1963, trade between the two countries amounted to around 100 million CZK. Czechoslovakia-Ghana trade relations slowed down significantly after Nkrumah's government was overthrown by the National Liberation Council in 1966 ...
Ghanaian Vice-President Mahama, center, met with Czech officials this month, Courtesy Photo
You can find the entire Cat Contiguglia's article at www.praguepost.com
November 2010
Article Title: CHARM OF AFRICAN JEWEL
Source: SVODOBNY HLAS - Louny, Postoloprty, Zatec and Podborany Region Weekly, Volume 19, Number 44, Page 4, November 3, 2010/mim
The opening of the exhibition "CHARM OF AFRICAN JEWEL" is held in the Municipal Library in Louny on Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 5 p.m. Dr. Marie Imbrova's personal collection of decorations is a collection that does not cover all regions even all types of African jewels, but it is diverse enough to arouse the interest of other collectors and people interested in this specific art. The jewellery production on the African continent overlaps variously, develops and reaches more and more individuals and fashion designers. Do not miss it.
Link: www.svobodnyhlas.cz
November 2010
Article Title: THE 4TH CZECH PRESIDENTESS SYMPOSIUM TOOK PLACE IN PRAGUE
Source: BRITSKE LISTY - Daily Newspaper On Everything, About What It Does Not Speak Far Too In The Czech Republic, www.blisty.cz, November 1, 2010/Dr. Zdenka Petakova
About an answer to the question "What is important for our country and where it should direct?" Czech female celebrities thought at the meeting entitled CZECH PRESIDENTESS SYMPOSIUM, which took place on October 26, 2010.
... Many distinguished guests appeared in the auditorium of the symposium, among them the sociologist and forecaster Professor Martin Potucek and Marie Imbrova, the founder of the Tengenenge Friends Club, helping in the education of African children. All those who came, symbolically gave support to the idea of the need for greater involvement of women in the public life and greater participation of women in the decision-making positions ...
You can find the entire Dr. Zdenka Petakova's article at www.blisty.cz (available in Czech language only).
October 2010
TV Interview: CHARITY IN ZIMBABWE
Source: CZECH TELEVISION, Channel CT24, Programme Before Moon - News Block - Continent, October 18, 2010, 10:35 a.m./Patricie Strouhalova
Dr. Marie Imbrova, a former Chargé d'Affaires of the Czech Republic in Zimbabwe, an African studies expert and an African fine arts collector was answering "How hard is to do the charity in Zimbabwe?" ...
You can see the record of the entire Patricie Strouhalova's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova at www.ceskatelevize.cz (available in Czech language only).
October 2010
Article Title: TENGENENGE - THE PLACE WHERE IT MEETS STONE AND LIFE
Source: MINERAL RAW MATERIALS, magazine of the Mining Union, Brno, No. 3/2010, Page 20 - Geological Attractions, October 4, 2010/Dr. Zdenka Petakova, Czech Geological Service
The stone sculptures that we are introducing here, are created by indigenous sculptors in the African state of Zimbabwe. By their work, they continue the traditional African wood carving. Sculptural work and related services, widespread throughout the country, are nourishing about a tenth of the population of Zimbabwe. One of the original centres of the stone sculpting is the village of Tengenenge. Here, until today, there are still manually obtaining appropriate blocks in the local stone quarries, and all the sculptural work is carried out by standard hand stone-cutting tools. The finished sculptures are warming up, impregnated with wax and polished. Thanks to this final adjustment they are surviving the weather conditions in the open air both in the Central Africa and in the European environment.
Cultural bridges
In the last decades, some Czech men and women who communicate with the local art and fine art scholars' communities, are continuing in the heritage of the Emil Holub, the traveller and patriot, whose discovery voyages headed into the heart of the South Africa, and of his create-collection activity. From time to time, they are organizing very uneasy transports of statues to the Czech Republic. They bring to us the most original, what the stone sculptors from Zimbabwe offer. For exhibition and commercial purposes it has been brought to our country some thousands of stone statues originating from the region Tengenenge. They found their place in private collections and even in the collections of the National Gallery. Regional exhibitions were held in Hodonin (2007), Koprivnice (2008), Jablonec nad Nisou (2010) and in several other places, a large exhibition was organized by the National Gallery in Prague in 2007. Also, two extraordinarily impressive outdoor installations in the Botanical Garden in Prague's Troja intermediated us - cold Central Europeans - a warm artistic perception of Zimbabwean artists.
Tengenenge Friends Club
Marie Imbrova, who worked in the diplomatic services in the Central and Eastern Africa (www.imbrova.cz.cc), has an important merit for the representation of contemporary African sculptures in the Czech environment. She has imported in the Czech Republic a comprehensive collection of statues of the world-famous sculptor Lazarus Takawira from Ruwa near Harare (www.vejr.cz/takawira) and a set of her favourite authors from Tengenenge. Through statues of her constantly supplemented collection, she is sharing with us the experience of authentic artistic expression, namely by organizing exhibitions in the Emil Julis Gallery in Cerncice near Louny (2009) and even by participating in a presentation at Prague's Manes (2010). Exhibition of the Lazarus Takawira's sculptures in the spa town Lazne Belohrad will last until October 31.
Marie Imbrova remains in a close contact with the sculpture community in Tengenenge, where already the forth generation of stone sculptors in a secluded nook is working. But generational continuity in the sculptural craft and art work is threatened by economic development in the country. Zimbabwe is consistently among the poorest countries in the world and standard of living continues to decline. Aware of the need to help, Marie Imbrova set up the Tengenenge Friends Club (www.tengenenge.cz) well designed to collect resources for basic education of those youngest ones who - let's hope - will bear on the stone sculpture tradition.
Link: www.tezebni-unie.cz
August 2010
Radio Interview: CZECH FOREIGN MINISTRY LACKS AFRICAN STRATEGY
Source: RADIO PRAGUE - Czech Radio 7, Edition One on One, August 30, 2010, 3:31 p.m./Jan Richter
Czech–African relations went through a downturn after the fall of communism, and might suffer another blow as the Czech Foreign Ministry has announced the closure of Czech embassies in Congo and Kenya. In this edition of One on One, we talk to Marie Imbrová, an African studies expert and a former diplomat, who spent eight years at Czech embassies in Kenya and Zimbabwe. She has continued visiting Zimbabwe even after she left the Foreign Ministry, and she is involved in several development projects there. During her sojourn in Africa, she also developed a passion for modern African art.
"It’s not only my hobby, but it’s serious work. I lived in Zimbabwe from 2005 to 2008 when my work took me there, and after I left the Czech Foreign Ministry, I decided to continue my work there as a private person. I go there regularly; I was there three times last year and this year, it’ll be my second trip."
"I’m trying to find out how they perceive African art in Western Europe and in the US, and of course, what’s the position of Zimbabwean art as such."
"I’m really proud of my Zimbabwean colleagues and friends among painters and sculptors, many of whom are among the world’s top contemporary artists." ...
Dr. Marie Imbrova, photo: Milan Kosina
You can find, read or hear, the whole Jan Richter's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova in English at www.radio.cz
Links: www.anjnews.com , www.interceder.net , www.czechforum.net , www.centralafricanstudies.com , www.wikio.com , www.x1news.com , www.timrujanforgovernor.com , www.ie.altavista.com , www.4topnews.com
August 2010
Radio Interview: AFRICAN ART IS SEEN IN LOUNY REGION
Source: CZECH RADIO, CR - North, North Bohemian Atlas Edition , August 28, 2010, 10:10 a.m./David Hertl
It is a some month when we visited in the North Bohemian Atlas Edition the Emil Julis Gallery in Cerncice near Louny, which specializes in contemporary Czech art.
But exceptions prove the rule - and so after a year, African art returned again to this gallery. The gallery owner Pavel Rudolf Vejrazka addressed again the collector Marie Imbrova which has selected last year for this gallery from her collections Lazarus Takawira's sculptures. What of contemporary African art is seen this time, on this I, already, asked Marie Imbrova ...
You can listen to the entire David Hertl's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova at www.rozhlas.cz (available in Czech language only).
August 2010
Article Title: BY SHUTDOWN OF EMBASSIES IT DOES NOT SPARE, THE PRINCE IS FACING CRITICISM
Source: prvnizpravy.cz, The Most Important in Politics and Business, August 24, 2010, 1:55 p.m./Adam B. Bartos
The intention of Karel Schwarzenberg, Czech Foreign Minister (the Prince), to shutdown some embassies will miss the aim, the former diplomat is warning. Marie Imbrova is an African studies expert and a former Consul to Zimbabwe and Kenya. She has been working some long years for the Ministry and she is appreciating the experience that she gathered from the work at the Prague Headquarters or Embassy ...
You can read the entire article at www.prvnizpravy.cz (available in Czech language only).
Links: www.eportal.cz , www.parlamentnilisty.cz , www.mzvcr.wordpress.com , www.w.rozhlas.cz
August 2010
Article Title: A HALF CENTURY AFTER THE END OF COLONIES THE DICTATORS BECAME A THING OF THE PAST. AFRICA IS FLIRTING WITH DEMOCRACY
Source: iDNES.cz, August 23, 2010, 11:36 a.m./Iveta Polochova
This year, seventeen African countries are celebrating their 50th birthdays and at once nine of them gained their independence from some-time colonizers in August. The black continent surpassed dictators´ reign of terror, bloody civil wars, genocides even famines. A half century after "a year of Africa" they have in the majority of the countries some democracy, however African style one ...
You can read the whole article at www.idnes.cz (available in Czech language only).
Links: www.zpravy.o2active.cz , www.mportal.cz , www.sme.sk
August 2010
Radio Interview: AFRICAN ART IN EMIL JULIS GALLERY
Source: CZECH RADIO, CR 3 - Vltava, Programme Mozaika - Cultural News, August 9, 2010/David Hertl
After one year, African fine arts returned back to the Emil Julis Gallery in Cerncice near Louny (Czech Republic). The gallery owner Pavel Rudolf Vejrazka addressed again the collector Marie Imbrova that had chosen from her collection Lazarus Takawira's sculptures. What is to be seen this time from modern African fine arts, cultural news editor David Hertl questioned rightly Marie Imbrova ...
You can listen to the whole David Hertl's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova, concerning the above-mentioned topic, at www.rozhlas.cz (available in Czech language only).
July 2010
Article Title: THE CASTLE IN PATEK OPENED ANOTHER TOURIST SEASON
Source: Zatecky a Lounsky denik.cz, Zatec and Louny Daily, Culture, 3. 7. 2010, 2:18 p.m./Petr Kinst
In Patek nad Ohri, district Louny, they opened again for tourists. It happened so during the ceremony on Friday evening, July 2, it started there so already the 7th season ...
Newly, the Emil Holub Exposition that was donated to the Castle in Patek by The Naprstek Museum in Prague, enriched the African Studies expert Marie Imbrova. She is acting many years in African Zimbabwe, where she documented traces of this Czech traveler. "There is evidence that Emil Holub was the 10th European who visited The Victoria Falls. He was at all the first who mapped them" she said in the ceremony opening the season.
She also presented her project, which covers the village Tengenenge in Zimbabwe. It lies on the slopes of the mine and thanks to this, there is a unique sculpture community - in the village it is exposed about thirty thousand statues. The project that she presented in Patek and to which it is devoted a part of the exhibition space in the Castle, is related to the education of the local children ...
The entire Petr Kinst's article can be found at www.zatecky.denik.cz (available in Czech language only).
June 2010
Article Title: UNIQUE EXHIBITION OF AFRICAN SCULPTURES
Source: Spa Magazine, Anenske slatinne lazne (Ann's Peat Spa), JSC - Lazne Belohrad, No. 02/2010, Page 6/sim
The new Tree of Life Spa Resort in Lazne Belohrad enjoys ever greater attention.
Last Saturday in May, in the Entrance Hall, there was held the Opening Ceremony of the exhibition of original African sculptures from the private collection of Dr. Marie Imbrova, former chargé d'affaires in Harare (Zimbabwe).
The Supervisory Board Chairwoman of the Ann's Peat Spa, JSC, Jitka Ferbrova, M.D. made a foreword speech together with Dr. Marie Imbrova.
Then, the visitors of the Opening Ceremony were acquainted with the work of one of the most outstanding representatives of contemporary Zimbabwean sculpture - the world-famous Lazarus Takawira. His works can be found inter alia in the permanent collection of museums in Paris, Tervuren, Mumbai and New York.
The Zimbabwean sculptor's creations are highly prized by private collectors, and even the British Royal Family is proud of having them in its private collection...
You can read the entire article at www.belohrad.cz (available in Czech language only).
May - June 2010
Article Title: TENGENENGE IN FEBRUARY 2010
Source: Journal "Cesky dialog - Czech Dialogue", Connecting Czechs at Home and Abroad, No. 05-06/2010, Page 27/mim
According to previous pledge Dr. Imbrova spent in Zimbabwe entire month of February and she managed to visit the community in Tengenenge three times at once, though it was a strong rainy season. The first stay she realized with the help of Dominic Benhura, the second trip she went by car of the International Red Cross in Harare and finally the third one she was accompanied by Eric Gauss, a French photographer, who replaced Ivana Weberova.
The terms of stay were partially agreed prior to arriving and so several-day stay in the village and meeting with children itself was not a problem. Currently they are in the preschool age 47 children and 39 of them have no birth certificate. But all their parents know why they are due to struggle for it. The children were delighted with the toys from Bohemia, they are going to the preschool with enthusiasm. The water is distributed around the village and fantastically white linen flutters among the trees … Dominic Benhura paid from the Austrian embassy's donation material for the construction of toilets and showers for the kids. There is missing money to build roofed classroom...
From the collected funds for Tengenenge in Bohemia in the total amount of 2000 USD the local teacher received the salary for 3 months amounting to 300 USD and 200 USD for the first trip with a group of parents to Guruve, where the registry office is situated... First of all, however, someone has to call somebody to fix a single drivable car, and from the donation also the gasoline will be paid. The remaining 1500 USD were then presently used to purchase of the sculptures for the charity exhibition of the International Red Cross in Harare. Obviously, for a reasonable price, all the realized money in Harare will go back to Tengenenge for pre-schoolers.
During the second trip, after three weeks, there were not only driven away from Tengenenge sculptures selected for the exhibition, but there were recalculated the costs of a child's birth certificate. It was succeeded to settle up five birth certificates during the two trips of parents and witnesses including travel fees and charges, so the securing costs are reaching an average of 40 USD for a birth certificate. Some parents, however, have a problem with their own documents and will have to visit the registry office at least two to three times. To the trip organizers to Guruve it was handed over further sum of 200 USD from other donors, the Czechs living in Harare.
The last visit took place in Tengenenge a day before departure. Eric Gauss accomplished the documentation of changes made in the village and with the Council of Elders there were talked over the results of the exhibition. Everyone already knew that the exhibition was successful. It was transmitted 2050 USD to Dominic Benhura for the completion of the classroom and to finance additional birth certificates. Next two ones were in the process of handling by the end of February. More information at www.tengenenge.cz
Link: www.cesky-dialog.net
March - April 2010
Article Title: EASTER IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Source: Journal "Cesky dialog - Czech Dialogue", Connecting Czechs at Home and Abroad, No. 03-04/2010/Dr. Marie Imbrova
In the Czech Republic, as throughout the Christian world, Easter is an important religious festival. To remind us of the martyr´s death and resurrection of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Of course, Easter is also connected with many folk-customs and superstitions that go back to pre-Christian times. For example on Easter Monday there is pomlazka and painted eggs, young people pour water over each other, water symbolizes the regeneration of the power of life.
In the past, people in Bohemia sent each other hazelhens during Easter, as reminders of the quails sent by God to feed the Israelites in the desert. The pomlazka is an old custom which was very common. Young people whip each other with willow twigs plaited together and often with ribbons decorated and scarps of coloured cloth. This whip is called the pomlazka ...
You can find the entire Dr. Marie Imbrova's article at www.cesky-dialog.net
February 2010
Radio Interview: DR. MARIE IMBROVA IN PROGRAMME ODYSEA - Wandering along the Ways of Knowledge
Source: CZECH RADIO, CR 2 - Prague, Programme Odysea, February 12, 2010, 05:30 p.m./Jana Spackova
The African studies expert and contemporary African art collector Dr. Marie Imbrova anchored to her ambition to explore Africa in 13 years ...
You can listen to the entire Jana Spackova's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova and her son Jindrich Imbr, who lives permanently in Zimbabwe, at www.rozhlas.cz (available in Czech language only).
Links: www.rozhlas.cz , www2.rozhlas.cz
Photo: Vera Luptakova
February, 2010
Monthly Magazine Interview: MARIE IMBROVA - ABOUT TENGENENGE CHILDREN
Source: LISTY PRAHY 1, Cultural and Social Monthly Magazine, No. 2/2010, Page 3 - INTERVIEW/EDUCATION/Martina Fialkova
I am looking at the photos, on which cute kinky black little boys and tress black little girls in multicolored clothing are toddling. In the background it is seen something like a park full of amazing sculptures, representing animals and people, made from nice black polished stone. It is serpentine that is mined in Tengenenge, what means The Place of Beginning. The photos have originated in the far-away Zimbabwe (ex-Rhodesia), in the country devastated by dictatorship of the President Mugabe. By the way, Wikipedia is mentioning about it: Public debt is reaching 260 % of the Gross National Product (GNP) in 2008. GNP per person in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) was only USD 200,-- that is the lowest value in the world ...
You can read the entire Martina Fialkova's interview with Dr. Marie Imbrova at www.listyprahy1.cz (available in Czech language only).
January - February 2010
Article Title: TENGENENGE FRIENDS CLUB
Source: Journal "Cesky dialog - Czech Dialogue", Connecting Czechs at Home and Abroad, No. 01-02/2010
As we were writing already in the past numbers, Dr. Marie Imbrova, a former diplomat, has gone from the State Services and started on her own to help the children in the Zimbabwean village Tengenenge. This one is extraordinary by the fact that there, all the inhabitants make statues in stone from a nearby quarry, namely from the small children to the old men and old women – who seem, however, even at their age, very fresh...
Thanks to the support of friends and of certain bodies, the International Czech Club included, Dr. Imbrova, with close friends, has come to a decision to initiate the formation of the Tengenenge Friends Club. The first meeting of the Tengenenge Friends Club took place on January 6, 2010...
...More about the activities of the Tengenenge Friends Club and information about possibilities of the membership, you will find at www.tengenenge.cz
The entire article can be found at www.cesky-dialog.net (available in Czech language only).
January 2010
Article Title: THREE KINGS' MEETING FOR TENGENENGE CHILDREN
Source: www.cesky-dialog.net - Website of the Journal "Cesky dialog - Czech Dialogue", Connecting Czechs at Home and Abroad, Breaking News, January 9, 2010
Dr. Marie Imbrova is helping to the children from the Tengenenge Sculptural Colony more than four years. She is striving to get for them necessary medical care, teachers, support the foundation of a school in the remote settlement, where the children from their birth are moving between stone mine and their parents´ sculptural work-shop. Without the possibility of the education, they don't have the possibility to get behind the frontiers of this colony and are forced to share the destiny of their parents...
You can find the entire article at www.cesky-dialog.net (available in Czech language only).
Link: www.tengenenge.cz
January 2010
Radio Interview: AFRICAN FINE ARTS IN THE LOUNY REGION - PART NO. 1 - 5 (FIVE PART RADIO SERIES OF THE NORTH BOHEMIAN ATLAS EDITION)
Source: CZECH RADIO, CR - North, North Bohemian Atlas Edition, January 2010/David Hertl
The North Bohemian Atlas Edition regular series of the Czech Radio - North in January are dedicated to the African fine arts and the people who are creating them.
The former employee of our embassy in Zimbabwe Marie Imbrova, who lives permanently in the Region of Louny, is telling about it. She brought a collection of statues from her travels to Africa, part of which you can see in the Emil Julis Gallery in Cernice near Louny.
Marie Imbrova stayed several times even in the Tengenenge sculpture village, in the north of Harare. From the interest in sculptures and sculptors it has also developed an interest in the fate of their children. Marie Imbrova already imported several times for the Tengenenge children various small things, but she is dreaming about the realization of a big project ...
You can listen to the individual interviews with Dr. Marie Imbrova at the following undermentioned links (available Czech version only):
Dr. Marie Imbrova, photo: Milan Kosina
African Art in the Louny Region - Part 1, January 02, 2010, Saturday at 10:10 a.m. (Rerun Sunday at 8:05 p.m.)
African Art in the Louny Region - Part 2, January 09, 2010, Saturday at 10:10 a.m. (Rerun Sunday at 8:05 p.m.)
African Art in the Louny Region - Part 3, January 16, 2010, Saturday at 10:10 a.m. (Rerun Sunday at 8:05 p.m.)
African Art in the Louny Region - Part 4, January 23, 2010, Saturday at 10:10 a.m. (Rerun Sunday at 8:05 p.m.)
African Art in the Louny Region - Part 5, January 30, 2010, Saturday at 10:10 a.m. (Rerun Sunday at 8:05 p.m.)
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