On Thursday, March 26, 2009, the Bez Zabradli theatre in Prague hosted an event that witnessed three important announcements regarding the Revealed project. First, the Revealed team revealed its plans at home and in Africa; second, it launched an exhibition about the project; and third, it received the Greenpeace Innovation for Living Planet award.
Lucie Vyborna, the host at the event, first summarised the evolution of the multimedia project. While its aim at the very beginning was to mock popular reality shows, its scope soon broadened. The project has helped educate the general public about the life of gorillas in the wild. At the same time, the gorilla troop featuring in a live webcast from the Prague zoo enamoured thousands of people who admire their unique abilities and surprising skills. The Revealed eventually proved such a great success that it did not end after the originally planned three months but has been going on for four years now.
To mark the fourth anniversary, an exhibition called The Revealed as a Phenomenon will recap on the events and activities of the past years. Featuring large-format photographs, the exhibition will visit several places in Prague (Eden and Chodov shopping centres, the Book World international book fair in the Industrial Palace).
Czech Radio general manager Václav Kasík highlighted the innovativeness of the project and its achievements, and wished the exhibition success. Prague Zoo director Petr Fejk said he initially had not expected the Revealed to run for so long and achieve such a great success. He praised the project for delivering quality content and its recent shift of focus towards protection of gorillas in the wild, which matches the interests and efforts of the Prague Zoo.
Miroslav Bobek , director of Czech Radio Online and Czech Radio Leonardo, presented planned events and activities of the Revealed in the coming weeks and months. Instead of mere financial support of protection efforts, the project will focus on tangible help in Central Africa. After the success of a book of gorilla fairy-tales distributed in English to schools and state organisations in Cameroon, the Revealed has been honoured to join the UN's Year of the Gorilla. At the same time, the Revealed started working with legendary conservationist Richard Leakey and his Wildlifedirect project. Besides other things, the Revealed will develop educational programmes in the Dja region. The Gorilla Fairy-Tales in French should find their way to children in other countries of Central Africa, such as the Republic of the Congo. The fairy-tales have also been recorded on a CD and the project is looking for ways to distribute them to African radio stations. Next week, the Revealed is setting off for an expedition to Africa to deliver information about the life of gorillas in several locations in Central Africa and their protection. The expedition will produce an on-line travel log. We also hope that our planned live webcast from the Limbe Wildlife Centre will work out. Our internet specialist,Jiří Malina, talked about new technologies to be used and about the difficulties of setting up live internet transmission from Africa. Czech Radio's editor Jana Jirátová mentioned local activities, such as the Revealed Festival that is going to take place as part of the Book World international book fair. The festival will include presentations, the Phenomenon exhibition, video screenings, as well as an attractive programme for children.
Greenpeace handed over to the authors of the Revealed project its Innovation for Living planet award, which is symbolic by its design (planet-like glass ball on wacky legs, needs to be handled with great care) as well as its weight (it is intended for those who significantly contribute the protection of the environment and endangered species). Miroslav Bobek and other members of the Revealed team The Revealed team received the Innovation for Living Planet award from the hands of Greenpeace spokeswoman Lenka Boráková and actor Petr Vacek. The project received the award for innovative approach and the use of modern technologies in public education and environmental protection efforts. Greenpeace has opened three offices in Africa this year and continues developing its activities on the continent. It focuses primarily on fighting illegal logging and destruction of tropical forests, the home of numerous endangered species, including gorillas. According to Borakova, this is why Greenpeace highly appreciates the Revealed project.
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