Start up: Richard Janeček – I Think in an Ideal World, It Would Have Ended Very Differently

Address
GHMP Colloredo-Mansfeld
Karlova 189/2
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
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The building is not barrier-free.

Accessibility
Sub A (Staroměstská station)
trams n. 2, 17, 18 (Karlovy lázně or Staroměstská stop)

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm

admission: 1 CZK

Janeček’s project looks at the question of artificial intelligence (AI), which in various forms has started to become an integral part of our lives and is shaping our view of the world. Janeček takes a humanistic look at this artificial form of thinking and, by subjecting various objects to photogrammetric analysis, broadly demonstrates our own statistical way of seeing the world around us.

Richard Janeček, I think in an ideal world, it would have ended very differently, 2019

view to Start up: Richard Janeček: I Think in an Ideal World, It Would Have Ended Very Differently exhibition, Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace, coach house, 2019. Photo by Richard Janeček

J/P/K Jasanský Polák Karny

Address
GHMP Dům fotografie
Revoluční 1006/5
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
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The building is barrier-free (elevator – call the phone T (+420) 702 283 922)

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm
Thu 10 am – 8 pm

Admission

full 120 CZK
reduced 60 CZK

The photographer duo Lukáš Jasanský (1965) and Martin Polák (1966) became involved in current events on the art scene in the late 1980s, and they have since become an important and inseparable part of it. For over three decades, this stable photographic tandem (at more or less regular intervals) has created exactly formulated conceptual projects. The basic means of expression of Lukáš Jasanský and Martin Polák are extensive photographic series, employing repetition, seriality or archive elements. All these characteristic features can also be applied to their new series J/P/K Jasanský Polák Karny to be presented for the first time ever in Prague City Gallery’s House of Photography. The photographs were taken in Poland, the country “near and far” to the Czech Republic, while the impulse for this series came from the regional genius loci. Thematically, the series touches on various phenomena and relics of post-socialist countries, but it predominantly deals with history and the passing of time in general. The series is “enshrouded” in a soft veil of nostalgia, but at the same time one can feel the photographers’ uncompromising ironic distance.

view to J/P/K Jasanský Polák Karny exhibition, House of Photography, 2019. Photo by Martin Polák

Lukáš Jasanský, Martin Polák, J/P/K Jasanský Polák Karny, 2019

Start up: Apart Collective / Surface Depression and the Emergence of New Habitats

Address
GHMP Colloredo-Mansfeld
Karlova 189/2
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
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The building is not barrier-free.

Accessibility
Sub A (Staroměstská station)
trams n. 2, 17, 18 (Karlovy lázně or Staroměstská stop)

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm

Admission

as part of the entrance fee to Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace 1 CZK

Although late capitalism has experienced various cyclical periods of crisis since the 1970s, industrial modernism still appears to be not entirely exhausted. In fact, the historically most sensitive tremors are also accompanied by new ways of experiencing technological determinism. Slovakia’s Apart art collective uses sensual consumerist fetishes to present a drastic look at our consciousness at a time of environmental tragedy.

Apart Collective / Surface Depression and the Emergence of New Habitats

Aleš Hnízdil, Jiří Kačer – Sculptures and Objects

Address
GHMP Zámek Troja
U Trojského zámku 1/4
170 00 Prague 7
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Barrier-free entrance: basement and ground floor.

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm
Fri 1 am – 6 pm

Admission

full 120 CZK
reduced 60 CZK

Aleš Hnízdil and Jiří Kačer are artists of the same generation. Both of them were part of a group of young people who in the late 1980s started open criticism of the practices of the Czech Fine Artists’ Union and the Czech Fine Arts Fund, which eventually led to the reopening of the U Řečických Gallery, the first platform which gave space to artists just starting out, without any censorship and did not interfere with their production. It eventually became a unique laboratory of topical views of the time and their encounters, and cultivated the artistic orientation of this generation. Hnízdil and Kačer have chosen different paths and materials for their sculptural realizations and their works will complement each other, thanks to their different approaches to form and expression. While Hnízdil works with the vertically oriented ephemeral form of abstract wire structures with kinetic details, Kačer prefers stone in a both intimate and monumental format, with a graphically formulated texture on the surface of the lying blocks.

view to the exhibition Aleš Hnízdil, Jiří Kačer – Sculptures and Objects, Troja Château, 2019. Photo by Barbora Fastrová

Stone Treasures from Prague Gardens

Address
GHMP Zámek Troja
U Trojského zámku 1/4
170 00 Prague 7
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Barrier-free entrance: basement and ground floor.

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm
Fri 1 pm – 6 pm

Admission

full 120 CZK
reduced 60 CZK

Art decorations and minor architecture formed integral part of historical gardens in Prague. These artworks, exposed to the weather for dozens of years, gradually disappeared from the gardens; either they were destroyed for good or had to be replaced by copies. Saved original sculptures and architectural elements were stored in the depositories of the Prague City Gallery. These exhibits include stone fountains with figures of the Nereid and dolphins from Troja Château, found in the 1980s during the reconstruction of the château and its gardens. The exhibition also presents original sculptures from Vrtbovská Garden, a group of Chinese people from the landscape park Cibulka, or Braun’s sculptures from Villa Portheimka.

view into the exhibition Stone Treasures from Prague Gardens, Troja Château, 2018. Photo by Jiří Thýn

František Bílek’s Chýnov Visions

Address
GHMP Bílkův dům
Údolní 133
391 55 Chýnov u Tábora
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The building is not barrier-free.

Download the audio guide to the birthplace of František Bílek and the Chýnov cemetery with his works. The guide with commentary by curator Martin Krummholz is in Czech and English and can be downloaded for free.

Open
Tue-Sun 10–12 am, 1–5 pm

Admission

full 50 CZK
reduced 30 CZK

This exhibition presents you extraordinary Art Deco and Symbolist work of artist, which built in his native town Chýnov place for his activities in the form of individualistic variety of family house with the studio. The architecture of the house built by František Bílek in 1898 from raw brickwork with contemporary folkish wooden components and cuttings refers to the Chýnov traditional architecture. The representative selection of works represents artist mainly as a sculptor, includes also some samples of original furniture sets designed by Bílek for his daughter Berta and his son František Jaromír.

František Bílekʼs House in Chýnov. Photo by Oto Palán

relief on the František Bílek House in Chýnov. Photo by Oto Palán

František Bílek House in Chýnov. Photo by Oto Palán

František Bílek’s Chýnov Visions. Photo by Oto Palán

Fotograf Festival – Archeology of Euphoria: 1985–1995

Address
GHMP Colloredo-Mansfeld
Karlova 189/2
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
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The building is not barrier-free.

Accessibility
Sub A (Staroměstská station)
trams n. 2, 17, 18 (Karlovy lázně or Staroměstská stop)

Admission

full 120 CZK
reduced 60 CZK

The continuation of the international exhibition project within the Fotograf Festival,that is a meditation on the existence of an Eastern European identity, focuses on film and video by three artists generations. The five rooms structure continues in the developed line of oscillating positions of shame, desire for belonging and proud arrogance as definitional positions of a wounded identity. The five-room museum of infamous national histories, therapeutic reenactment of surprise, disappointment and humiliation, freely reprises the evolution of the past thirty years through a series of false liberation feelings.

Exhibited authors:
Matei Bejenaru, Piotr Bosacki, Pavel Brăila, Darja Bajagić, András Cséfalvay, Anetta Mona Chisa a Lucia Tkáčová, Jiří Černický, Chto Delat?, Anna Daučíková, Marek Delong a Anna Slama, Lizaveta Hrydziushka, Zhana Ivanova, IRWIN, Anna Jermolaewa, Shifra Kazhdan, Alina Kleytman, Kwiekulik, David Maljković, Marek Meduna, Marge Monko, Ciprian Muresan, Vlad Nancă, Deimantas Narkevičius, Jiří Skála, Mark Ther, Viktor Timofejev, Jerzy Truszkowski, Alicja Żebrowska, Jana Želibská

Sounds / Codes / Images

Address
GHMP Zvon
Staroměstské nám. 605/13
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
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The building is not barrier-free.

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 8 pm

Admission

full 120 CZK
reduced 60 CZK

The exhibition offers a historical overview of art that depicts sound as an abstract phenomenon, from the beginnings of abstraction to the present day. Its main focus is to trace the most important trends in audio experimentation in the field of the visual arts, in the form of paintings or graphic scores as well as audio installations, acoustic objects, film, and multimedia projections. Through our selection of historical materials, we aim to show how sound acquires color and shape, how it becomes an object or architecture, and what psychological as well as physical and mathematical factors determine its visual form. The exhibition also presents works by artists who have, on either the local or international level, shifted the way we think about artistic experimentation. Leading artists whose works will be shown at the exhibit include František Kupka, members of the Bauhaus, John Cage and members of Fluxus, various creators of graphic scores, Woody and Steina Vasulka, as well as other authors of audio objects and installations and artists working with acoustic ecology.

Exhibited authors:

Milan Adamčiak, Karel Adamus, Alois Bílek, John Cage, Peter Cusack, Federico Diaz, Irena a Karel Dodalovi, Tomáš Dvořák, Luboš Fidler, Ken Friedman, Michal Gabriel (Růžena Zátková), Christina Della Giustina, Milan Grygar, Milan Guštar, Jolana Havelková, Vladimír Havlík, Pavel Hayek, Dick Higgins, Arne Hošek, Tomáš Hrůza, Martin Janíček, Joe Jones, Olga Karlíková, Michal Kindernay, Milan Knížák, Jiří Kolář, Rudolf Komorous, Petr Kotík, Milan Kozelka, František Kupka, Ladislav Kupkovič, František Kyncl, Peter Machajdík, Alex Mlynárčik, Manfred Mohr, Gordon Monahan, Monogramista T.D, Charlotte Moorman, Pavel Mrkus, Michal Murin, Morgan O’Hara, Opening Performance Orchestra, Nam June Paik, Štěpán Palla, Ben Patterson (a Jozef Cseres), Zdeněk Pešánek, Jan Pfeiffer, Alois Piňos + Dalibor Chatrný, Miroslav Ponc, Keith Rowe, Blahoslav Rozbořil, Pavel Rudolf, Jan Steklík, Jaroslav Šťastný (Peter Graham), Jiří Suchánek, Jiří Valoch, Jitka Válová, Tomáš Vaněk, Steina Vasulka, Woody Vasulka, Jolana Havelková + Lucie Vítková, Robert Vlasák, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Jan Wojnar

view to Sounds / Codes / Images – Audio Experimentation in the Visual Arts exhibition, Stone Bell House, 2019. Photo by Tomáš Souček

Woody Vasulka, Thierry, 1970, video, 2 min., Prague City Gallery

Peter Cusack, Ice Bells, video, 9:47 min., courtesy of the author

Milan Knížák, Actual Music (partitury), around 1965. Prague City Gallery

Arne Hošek, Tá – Turá (from the collection of Slovak folk songs), 1932. Prague City Gallery

Carnations and Velvet

Address
GHMP Knihovna
Mariánské náměstí 98/1
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
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Barrier-free access is provided via the entrance from Valentinská Street (elevator).

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm

Admission

full 120 CZK
reduced 60 CZK

Surprising similarities, parallels and paradoxes of epoch-making events in Portugal and Czechoslovakia. Borders of a democratic continent, as well as borders of an epoch – Carnation and Velvet Revolutions as the first and last of the “third wave” of world revolutions and their reflection in visual arts.

The curatorial project Carnations and Velvet / Art and Revolution in Portugal and Czechoslovakia for the first time presents Portuguese art in the Czech lands and Slovakia. The common starting point is the year 1968, the time of the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia and the spring of Marcelo Caetano in Lisbon. This year brought about first hopes for the end of the existing undemocratic regimes – the hopes that were thwarted by the Soviet occupation in Czechoslovakia and by the continuation of the colonial war in Portugal. The years 1974 and 1989, the dates of peaceful revolutions, brought freedom to both countries. The Carnation Revolution took place on 25 April 1974, and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia on 17 November 1989.

The project features works of Czechoslovak artists, the legendary personalities who were of crucial importance for the formation of contemporary art in their diverse responses to the totalitarian regime, namely Adriena Šimotová, Eva Kmentová, Květa Válová, Jitka Válová, Jiří Kovanda, Petr Štembera, Karel Miler, Jan Mlčoch, Milan Knížák, Václav Havel, Jiří Kolář, Július Koller, Ľubomír Ďurček, Mária Bartuszová, Jana Želibská and many others. They will be juxtaposed with their Portuguese contemporaries such as Helena Almeida, Lourdes Castro, Ana Vieira, Ana Hatherly, Fernando Calhau, Manuel Alvess, António Barros, Silvestre Pestana, Alberto Carneiro, Ernesto de Sousa, Álvaro Lapa a José de Guimarães. Space will also be given to the younger generation of artists who reflect the theme of both totalitarian regimes, such as Zbyněk Baladrán, Carla Filipe and Ana de Almeida. In addition to works of art, the exhibition will feature extensive research by České televize, Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, Václav Havel Library, Fundacão Soares and the private archives of Portuguese students who, as the first foreign delegation, came to support the democratization of Czechoslovakia. As a token of support and sympathy, they handed out 50,000 roses to the people assembled at the rally on Národní Street, and, together with President Mário Soares, donated a car to Václav Havel.

The large-scale research project will be accompanied by a trilingual publication with articles by Sandra Baborovská, Adelaide Ginga, Pavel Szobi, Vít Havránek and Ana de Almeida. The publication and exhibition have been created in association with Prague City Gallery and the Museu Nacional Contemporânea do Chiado.

view to Carnations and Velvet / Art and Revolution in Portugal and Czechoslovakia 1968–1974–1989 exhibition. Municipal Library, 2nd floor, 2019. Photo by Tomáš Souček

Portugal, December 14, 1990 – Cabo da Roca – Václav Havel on the Atlantic coast near the westernmost tip of the European continent, photo: Tomki Němec/400ASA. Any other/further distribution of the photo only with the written permission of the author

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, The Tree of Liberty, 1974–1975, Colecção MNAC. Ex-Col. SEC- Casa Morgados da Pedricosa

António Barros, Revolution, 1977, Col. Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto. Photo by Tomáš Souček

Fernando Calhau, #99 (Materialization of an Imaginary Square), 1974. Zdroj: 1960–1980. Anos de Normalização Artística na Colecções do Museu do Chiado, 2003

Order of Liberty for Václav Havel, 1990. Source: Fundaçao Mário Soares / Arquivo Soares

Report about roses event. In the Portuguese press, 1989. Source: Biblioteca Municipal de Lisboa

Porto, 25 April 1975, election day. Source: Petr Morávek

Start up: Ondřej Filípek – Ligament

Address
GHMP Colloredo-Mansfeld
Karlova 189/2
110 00 Prague 1 – Staré Město
Map

The building is not barrier-free.

Accessibility
Sub A (Staroměstská station)
trams n. 2, 17, 18 (Karlovy lázně or Staroměstská stop)

Open
Tue-Sun 10 am – 6 pm

Admission

as part of the entrance fee to Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace 1 CZK

Within the Cartesian coordinate system, man is always standing at the center of the world, observing it. In his 1936 text The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem, Jan Patočka describe three possible movements in human life: the movement of the anchorage or acceptance we receive from others; the movement of the work and struggle by which we influence our present conditions, which we adapt to life; and the movement of breaking through or truth, which is our only activity not determined by our given situation. As described by Patočka, experienced movement is not a mere prospect of the consciousness – far more than that, it is a physical act.

The work of Ondřej Filípek (*1993) centers on the human figure surrounded by the ruins of our present day, which he tries to renew with the help of its long-buried relicts. This is done at places of interface – where the sculpture as a figure, a vertical creation resembling the human body, meets its base. Patočka speaks of physical awareness as an active deed: Through the figural sculpture and its situation within the context of the exhibition, Filípek attempts to demonstrate man’s radical connection to the state of things in which he is situated. The constructive principle of his exhibition thus resembles an attempt at finding one’s way in a world without fixed reference points. It is within this process that Filípek applies his strategy of bringing to life technology by using it in organic forms resembling the human body, placed within an industrial framework. Under the burden of technology’s ruination of human naturalness, Filípek again begins to build verticals, to reconstruct the natural human awareness lost within the web of postindustrial thinking in the world today.

During his time at the Academy of Fine Arts, Filípek studied sculpture, first under Jaroslav Róna and then under Lukáš Rittstein, graduating in 2018 from Vojtěch Míča’s Studio of Figural Sculptures and Medals. Past exhibitions include the group exhibitions Against Nature at the Trade Fair Palace and The Possibilities of Dialogue #1 at the Salm Palace.