Prague Art Week26 will be launched together with the autumn Opening at the National Gallery Prague in the Veletržní Palace, on September 24 – to celebrate its 230th anniversary, the NGP will open the entire palace to the public and present interventions in the contemporary art collection. Over the four festival days, the show will connect key public institutions, private galleries, art hubs, and unconventional locations, offering visitors a unique opportunity to discover the most interesting things from the current Czech and international art scene.
“The fifth year of Prague Art Week confirms that Prague is one of the important centers of contemporary art in Central Europe. Our goal is to connect established institutions with new initiatives and also to open up places normally inaccessible to the public. We are very pleased that this year we can also present projects that are created specifically for the festival and reflect the specific context of the city,” says Lenka Bakes, director of the Prague Art Week festival.
A significant part of the program will be projects created specifically for Prague Art.Week26. KodlContemporary Gallery will present the site-specific exhibition Le Chat Noir in the historic premises of the Parnas restaurant. Visitors will also be able to see one of the most remarkable Czech private collections, Oldřich Uttendorfský’s at the exhibition cabinet of life in the Magnus Art gallery. The festival will also continue to support the upcoming generation of artists. The third year of the Young Selection exhibition project will present the most outstanding young talents at the beginning of their careers and will take place for the second time in the art hub The House.
This year’s Prague Art Week will bring dozens of newly opened exhibitions, guided tours, open studios, workshops and meetings with artists. In addition to traditional partners, which include National Gallery Prague with new interventions in the contemporary art collection and open access to exhibitions in the Trade Fair Palace, Gallery of the Capital City of Prague with accompanying program for the exhibition Headless Horseman, Kunsthalle Prague with an exhibition Memory of Touch, developing in two chapters and representing the first extensive presentation of the Kunsthalle Praha collection, or the DOX Center for Contemporary Art with an exhibition by Radka Bodzewicz, to which they will also prepare a family art workshop. Here, visitors will also have the opportunity to visit the newly opened collective exhibition ANDROS – The Male Body in Contemporary Central European Art. Exhibition Legacy of Bloodwill appear at MeetFactory. The festival will also introduce new players on the Prague art scene. For the first time, the Prostora gallery, focused on presenting private collections, and the Ethera gallery, focused on minimalism and abstraction, will join the program.
“During these four days, Prague’s galleries and streets will be transformed into a unique map that will allow visitors to experience art in unexpected contexts and see places they would not normally be able to get to. Where to go during the festival? You can focus on a fascinating journey into private collections and look into modern cabinets of curiosities, collections of the artists themselves and leading Prague institutions. However, art will not only be discovered in galleries – the festival will also take you to public spaces and iconic places in the metropolis. You can also choose the program according to the themes that the artists work with. In their works, they explore corporeality, identity and gender through narratives of coexistence, personal memories and interpersonal relationships. They also reflect on human interaction through the metaphor of shared housing or gravity as a force shaping our relationships. These streams of thought are complemented by formal and material experiments – from the transformations of painterly abstraction and geometry to the connection of ceramics with alchemy to monumental installation made of upcycled textiles,” says Lenka Bakes, pointing out that the clear website interface will also make it easier to navigate the rich festival program on www..pragueartweek.cz/en.
Prague Art Week26 will also offer an extensive professional program focused on art in public space. Discussion blocks in Sueprestudio will open the topic of the relationship between art, architecture and development and present inspiring examples from the Czech Republic, Europe and Hong Kong. The program will focus on the role of art in shaping the identity of the city, the creation of community spaces and the long-term development of the public environment.
Complete Prague Art programWeek26 will be published gradually during the summer together with a festival map, which will once again connect new and established artistic addresses across Prague.
Involved participants:
Berlinskej model, C12 Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art DOX, Clauda, CSU (Gallery Jelení and Kurzor), Dorotheum, Ethera Gallery, Gallery of the Capital City of Prague, Kodl Gallery, Kooperativy Gallery, Magnus Art Gallery, Smečky Gallery, GAVU, Graciano, Hidden Gallery, Holešovická šachta, hunt kastner, HYB4 Gallery, KodlContemporary, Kunsthalle Praha, MeetFactory, Věra and Vladimír Janoušek Foundation, National Gallery Prague (Fair Palace), NOD, Penta Art (Masaryčka, Atrium in Florentin, Atrium in The Cloud one hotel, Nuselský pivovar, Waltrovka Area), Prostora, Stanice, Světova 1, The House Art
