Cork 2005: Czech folk group Gaudeamus will take centre stage for the launch of the Czech Republic's tenure in the Enlargement series at the Vision Centre on September 1st. The month-long exhibition Strange World by Roman Franta will be opened that evening by the Deputy Minister of Culture, Petra Smolikova.

At the same time the Czech sculptor Petr Sedivy is presenting his first exhibition in Ireland at the Stephen Pearce emporium in Shanagarry near Midleton in Co Cork, continuing to September 26th. The much-travelled Sedivy was Professor of Fine Art at New York's Buffalo University for two years and was also a long-term lecturer at the Academy of Fine Art in Prague.

His many commissions in his homeland include monumental works for his native city of Prague as well as heroic portraits for the Czech government, and he also works in interior design and fashion on an international scale.