"4+4 Days in Motion" Festival to Bring Prague Performances on War, Memory and Technology

Prague's international contemporary performing arts festival "4+4 Days in Motion" has unveiled its autumn 2026 programme. The main events will take place from 7–14 November at two former cinemas turned cultural venues — Galaxie and Vzlet — while street projects in late September and early October will serve as the festival's prologue.

According to the festival's dramaturge Pavel Štěrba, contemporary reality is splintering into countless images and perspectives, and there is no longer a single, coherent picture of the world. This idea underpins the festival's visual concept — an image of "happy family harmony" with a subtly absurd counterpoint: a world that, according to earlier expectations, should have long since become orderly and safe, but instead took a very different path.

Prologue in the urban space

Ahead of the main programme, the festival will present a site-specific project by German choreographer Anna Till, IMPOSSIBLE HORIZONS — on 24 and 25 September from 18:00 in the Galaxie neighbourhood. Audiences are invited to rediscover the Háje housing estate through movement, architecture and the voices of local residents, with the choreography built on real conversations with people who live there.

On 2 October at 16:00, gathering at the Vzlet venue, unreal state will take place — a project by Argentinian director and puppeteer Marcos Krivocapich. This is a walking game in the format of an IRL RPG, turning the streets of Vršovice into both a playing field and a theatrical stage. Participants receive a mobile app, a game booklet and a role — resident, activist or developer — and their real-time movements through the city influence the course of the game, which is controlled by a fictional authoritarian "King." The game leads audiences through neighbourhoods affected by gentrification and prompts reflection on how algorithms and digital systems shape our decisions. The experience lasts roughly 70–90 minutes; participants will need a charged phone, and ideally a power bank and headphones.

International programme in November

Swiss performer and video artist Sarah Hugentobler presents the multimedia performance FUGE IN HD (7–8 November, Galaxie), combining an archive of voices, video footage, classical music and AI-generated voices.

London-based Japanese Deaf performer Chisato Minamimura will show Scored in Silence (9 November, Galaxie) — about the forgotten stories of deaf survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This marks the first time in the festival's more than thirty-year history that sign language becomes the central artistic and communicative medium.

Belgian choreographer Lisbeth Vereertbrugghen brings Again Forever (10–11 November, Galaxie) — a slow dance exploring intimacy and quiet resistance to the cult of speed. Belgium-based Palestinian performer Mara Haj Hussein presents her award-winning piece Language: No Broblem (10–11 November, Vzlet) — about language, identity, migration and the search for home.

Belgian company Ontroerend Goed, one of the brightest names in immersive theatre, will stage Thanks for Being Here (13 November, Vzlet), in which the audience gradually realises that they themselves are the evening's main protagonist. International collective Superamas, in their performative lecture Denmark: An Ethnographic Performance on Happiness (14 November, Galaxie), takes an ironic look at Denmark's image as one of the happiest countries in the world.

A dialogue on war and the post-Soviet space

A key part of the November programme will be the discussion-and-performance strand "Dialogue (Im)possible" (10–11 November, Vzlet, and 14 November, Galaxie) — testimonies from artists and curators from Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan about war, exile, censorship and the transformation of the post-Soviet space. The programme also includes the presentation of the anti-war anthology "Interrupt the Silence" and the participatory music performance "How Are You, Coucou?", which invites audience involvement.

On 14 November, Galaxie will host the premiere of Frames and Fragments, a new project by the Boca Loca Lab company and Jiří Adámek Austerlitz, situated somewhere between performance, concert and improvised happening.

The return of a hit show, and practical information

Due to strong audience demand, the autumn programme will also include four repeat performances of "To Myself," staged by Anna Klimešová and Petr Erbes — a collective project by young people exploring self-worth and finding one's place in the world. Performances will take place on 2 and 5 October, and 15 and 16 November, each starting at 19:30 at Vzlet.

The festival's prologue runs 24–25 September and 2 October, the main programme takes place 7–14 November 2026, and repeat performances of "To Myself" are scheduled for 2 and 5 October, and 15–16 November.

Around Prague, based on reporting by prazskypatriot.cz