An essential part of the programme was the time dedicated to personal exchange. The guests had the opportunity to meet not only one another, but also Prague-based artists, gallerists, curators and other cultural professionals. These encounters allowed the programme to go beyond a sequence of institutional visits and created space for more focused conversations about individual artistic practices, local conditions, gallery structures and possible future collaborations.
The programme was therefore conceived as a way of experiencing the Prague art scene from within. Alongside exhibitions and formal presentations, studio visits and informal conversations played an equally important role. Meeting artists directly in their working environments, speaking with gallerists about their programmes and spending several days together allowed relationships to develop more naturally and gave the invited guests a broader understanding of the local context.
One of the key moments of the programme was Show & Tell, a discussion and networking afternoon held on 23 September at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Selected international guests presented their professional practice, current projects and long-term areas of interest through a series of moderated presentations, followed by an informal networking session with members of the Czech art scene.
This year’s guests included Jennifer Braun, Henriette Bretton-Meyer, Joseph Chen, Larissa Friedrich, Weronika Jakubowska, Kasia Wąs, Anna Kuznetsova, Niels Amadeus Lange, Anna Meinecke, Mario de Jesus Petrucci, Katia Porro, Oksana Prinus, Gregorio Lucena Scarpella, Patrik Steinhauser, Marcin Szałański, Shuman Wang, Caroline Ferreira and others. Their different professional backgrounds — spanning curating, criticism, collecting, editorial work, institutional practice and independent cultural production — brought a wide range of perspectives to the programme and created space for exchange among the guests themselves.
Over the course of Prague Art Week, Meet the Scene functioned as a parallel layer of the festival: not as a one-off networking event, but as an intensive several-day programme built around shared time, repeated encounters and a gradual introduction to Prague’s artistic environment. The personal relationships established throughout the programme became one of its central elements, whether through conversations in artists’ studios, meetings with galleries and institutions, or connections formed between the international guests themselves.
The programme was realised with the generous support of the PPF Foundation, which made it possible to expand the festival’s care for international professionals, strengthen its English-language programme and create a more substantial framework for the long-term internationalisation and visibility of the Czech contemporary art scene.
