Program for Prague Art Week23

The opening of Prague Art Week will take place on September 21 at 7:00 p.m. in conjunction with the National Gallery Prague’s Opening at the Trade Fair Palace, and the dynamic four-day program will then run from Thursday to Sunday, September 21–24. For the second year in a row, the festival will be kicking off the fall art season with a diverse program in which many of Prague’s most renowned museums, art institutions, private collections, selected project spaces, art studios, and numerous galleries will showcase the local art scene as well as host artists and galleries from abroad. The extensive festival program will present visitors with diverse forms of contemporary art, from intimate painting exhibitions in galleries to large-scale sculptural realizations in public spaces to dance performances and literary events.

On Thursday, September 21, come to the National Gallery Prague’s Opening

All of the participating galleries and other art venues will open their doors to visitors from Thursday, September 21. The opening ceremony of the festival will take place at 7:00 p.m. together with the National Gallery Prague’s Opening at the Trade Fair Palace, which this year will also house the festival’s center for professionals, the so-called Superstudio. As part of the Opening, the NGP will be launching the new exhibition Watercolour between Prague and Vienna at the Trade Fair Palace as well as the exhibition HYPERTENSION23, which is part of Fotograf Festival #13. Visitors to Thursday’s Opening will also be able to view the recently introduced exhibitions of the NGP’s collections 1939–2021: The End of the Black-and-White Era and 1956–1989: Architecture for All as well as the permanent exhibitions 1918⁠–⁠1938: First Czechoslovak Republic and 1796⁠–⁠1918: Art of the Long Century. The NGP’s Opening will culminate in the performance Higher by Italian artist and choreographer Michele Rizzo, who will be presenting his work for the first time ever in Prague. The performance is taking place in collaboration with NGP, Lunchmeat, and PAW. The opening ceremony, the NGP’s Opening, and the entire PAW23 program for the general public, including guided tours, accompanying events, and workshops, will be free of charge. Information on the current program is available at pragueartweek.cz or in the PAW23 catalogue.

The program of conferences for professionals in the Superstudio will be reserved for PAW PASS holders (partners and guests of the festival, more info on [email protected]) and will consist of four thematic blocks—Art Reflection, Art Career, Art Service, and Art Collecting—which will later be available to watch YouTube and on the festival website. Viewers will have the opportunity to see how successful international projects are organized by art professionals, listen to a discussion about issues related to the art trade and counterfeiting, learn about the life of internationally renowned Czech artist Magdalena Jetelová and the work of Tadeáš Podhradský, and get acquainted with the visions of art collectors Kateřina Havrlantová and Pavlína Pudilová. Selected works by Jiří Matějů and Lukáš Rais will also be on display.

 

On Friday, September 22, visit openings and exhibitions in galleries and other unconventional locations all over Prague

In addition to new exhibitions for Fotograf Festival #13 at the National Gallery Prague and the Fotograf Gallery, the program of Prague Art Week23 also includes the international gallery co-op show SUMO Prague 2023, which will be taking place in seven private and off-space galleries across the city (A.M. 180, Berlinskej Model, City Surfer Office, Garage Gallery, Holešovická šachta, hunt kastner, Polansky). The joint group exhibition of SUMO, entitled Gnomes with Saxophones, will open on Friday, September 22, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. and will then continue until Sunday, September 24.

Exclusively during Prague Art Week23, four exhibitions will take place at the address Jeruzalémská 4 in a former bank building from the early 2000s which was provided to the festival by its partner PSN so that the disused structure could become an exhibition space for a period of four days. The opening ceremony will take place on Friday from 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. An installation tailored to fit the specific space around the bank counters has been prepared by the collection Pekelné sáně, which will present works by Tomáš Bárta a Tomáš Roubal. This will be complemented by Jan Nálevka’s intervention in the basement by the bank vault. The fifth floor will feature the exhibition Contemporary Polish Abstraction, with works by seven artists of different generations brought by Molski Gallery & Collection from Poznań, Poland. The postmodern architecture of banking houses and savings banks from the 1990s will be brought to life by Jana Pavlova’s book Chrámy peněz [Temples of money], and the building’s interior will be complemented by the work of a generation of young artists in the group exhibition Who Moved My Cheese?. 

The Friday evening program in Prague 1 can be combined with a visit to the Smečky Gallery for the exhibition of collages Two Plus Two Is Five (Collages 1973–2023) by one of the most prominent figures of the Czech visual art scene, Jiří Kovanda. The artist will be presenting some of the collages that he has been creating over the past fifty years.

The pre-auction exhibition Artslimit 6 at the KODL Gallery is an exceptional highlight, which, in addition to classic artworks by renowned Czech artists such as Václav Špála, Václav Radimský, Olbram Zoubek, Jiří Anderle, and Daniel Pitín, will also include a selected collection of iconic women’s handbags such as the Birkin 35. All of the works will be on display in the gallery until September 23, with a live auction on Sunday, September 24. Many artists will have new solo exhibitions at galleries in the historic center of Prague, including Pavla Dundálková at stone projects, Alex Selmeci & Tomáš Kocka Jusko at Galerie NoD, both Adam Kašpar and Linda Procházková at Kvalitář, and David Krňanský at HYB4 in Campus Hybernská, where there will be an all-day lounge with DJs on Friday.

Solo exhibitions of Czech artists will also take place in other parts of the city, including Eliška Konečná at Polansky and Jakub Janovský at Trafo Gallery in Prague 7, while Bold Gallery will present the group exhibition Tarot in the same neighborhood. In Prague 6, you can find exhibitions of Tadeáš Podhradský at Kuzebauch and Josef Kotrba at Art House Hejtmánek as well as an exhibition of a private collection in the unconventional space of a fitness center, prepared by the gallery Untitled. In Prague 5, works by Petra Švecová will be on display at Jiri Svestka Gallery, and there will be two international exhibitions at MeetFactory: Other Edges of the World and Degeneration of the Landscape. Also in Prague 5, on Sunday, September 24, those interested will have the opportunity to take a look inside the artist studios in the former abbey Gabriel Loci. Solo exhibitions by artists Michaela Červená at Platforma 15 and Andrea Fosterová at Galerie PRE will take visitors to Prague 3 and 10 respectively. Entrance Gallery will present a dialogue between two international artists in its new location in Dejvice, as will the gallery 35M2 in Žižkov. Outside of Prague in the village of Měšice, an exhibition by Tomáš Tichý will be on display at Artefin Gallery.

 

During the festival weekend, September 23–24, you can focus on unconventional events and the programs of large institutions

In addition to traditional art events, visitors can also look forward to the unveiling of eight new realizations in the public space at an as yet Secret Place. The first phase of construction will see the installation of artifacts by David Böhm & Jiří Franta, Michal Cimala, Petr Stanický, Čestmír Suška, Evžen Šimera, Michal Škapa, and Karel Štědrý, while Lukáš Rais’s work Trichodon will be displayed at Franz Kafka Square during PAW23 and then added to the collection at a later date. The location of this collection of spectacular open-air artworks by leading Czech sculptors and painters will be revealed during the opening of PAW23, but you can already save the date for the vernissage of the collection, which will take place on September 23 at 4:30 p.m. Other highlights of the festival program include the afternoon literary performance Ora et lege at the Museum of Literature, a Sunday performance by Janice Kerbel at the Convent of St. Agnes, and the performance Schwarmwesen, which will take place on Charles Bridge.

Special events and days with free admission have been staked out by many large institutions. Museum Kampa has organized the lecture “Why Is Kupka So Cheap?” as well as the opening of the studio of artists Věra and Vladimír Janoušek, which has undergone extensive renovation. Galerie Rudolfinum will have a guided tour of the exhibition NAVE with a Sunday art workshop for children. The DOX Centre for Contemporary Art will similarly have a guided tour of its exhibition Infamous Beauty and a connected Sunday family art workshop. On Sunday, September 24, all exhibitions at Kunsthalle Praha will be open free of charge, with guided tours of the exhibition Bohemia: History of an Idea, 1950–2000 all weekend long. On Saturday at Kunsthalle Praha you can also watch Jeremy Deller’s film Everybody in The Place: An Incomplete History of Britain between 1984 and 1992, which explores the social history of the UK through the lens of acid house and rave music, with screenings beginning every hour on the hour.

During the festival, the Prague City Gallery will have a symbolic admission price of 1 CZK for its exhibition of photographer Pavel Beneš at Otto Rothmayer’s Villa, for Villa Bílek, and for the Troja Château, where it is presenting a thematic exhibition from its collections together with an exhibition by Darina Alster. On Sunday, September 24, from 7:00 p.m., the Prague City Gallery invites visitors to the conclusion of the festival program, with the exhibition and concert project Uncertain Situations, which presents various possibilities of dialogue between music and visual arts.

“This year, the exhibitions and works of artists reflect the themes of the search for identity and humanity. Many of the exhibitors have also taken an ecological approach, and we are pleased that a large number of the works were created from recycled materials. This year we chose the subtitle PLAN_T for the festival, for our podcast Art Week, and for the conference in the Superstudio because it perfectly captures these motifs of green planning and sustainable growth. But everyone reads art from their own perspective, and it remains transcendental and inscrutable, so themes such as magic and the occult also feature in the program. Art either enchants you and transports you to other worlds or it activates you. What is certain is that we will harvest what we have planted. Come plan and harvest with us!” says festival director Lenka Bakes.

Prague Art Week includes a rich program of lectures, debates, and educational guided tours for the general public, which will be complemented by VIP events allowing the public to discover the diversity of the Prague art scene. You can join the PAW23 event on Facebook, regularly receive information about the program in our newsletter, and connect with us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Participating galleries on festivals map:

PRAGUE 1

  1. PAW23 4 Special Exhibition (Jeruzalémská ulice 4)

Pekelné sáně, Galerie Molski, Chrámy peněz, Who Moved My Cheese? 

  1. Galerie Smečky
  2. Museum Kampa
  3. GHMP Dům fotografie
  4. NGP Anežský klášter –Ora et lege II
  5. Galerie Kvalitář 
  6. HYB4 Galerie
  7. stone projects
  8. Galerie KODL
  9. Galerie Rudolfinum
  10. Kunsthalle Praha
  11. Galerie NoD
  12. Odkolekce – Lukáš Rais

 

PRAGUE 3

  1. hunt kastner 
  2. City Surfer Office
  3. A. M. 180
  4. PLATFORMA 15
  5. 35m2

 

PRAGUE 5

  1. Jiri Svestka Gallery 
  2. Museum Kampa – Atelier Janouškovi
  3. Gabriel Loci 
  4. MeetFactory

 

PRAGUE 6

  1. Untitled
  2. Arthouse Hejtmánek
  3. Muzeum literatury – Ora et lege
  4. Galerie Kuzebauch
  5. Rothmayerova vila – GHMP
  6. Bílkova vila – GHMP
  7. Galerie Entrance

 

PRAGUE 7

  1. PAW23 SUPERSTUDIO
  2. Národní galerie Praha
  3. Fotograf Festival (NGP)
  4. Fotograf Festival (P1)
  5. Berlinskej Model 
  6. Holešovická šachta
  7. CSU DOX
  8. Polansky
  9. GHMP – Zámek Troja
  10. Bold Gallery
  11. Trafo Gallery
  12. SUMO – Šlechtova restaurace

 

PRAGUE 8

  1. Garage Gallery
  2. Portu Gallery

 

PRAGUE 9

  1. Tajné místo

 

PRAGUE 10

  1. PRE 

 

OUT PRAGUE

  1. Artefin – Měšice
  2. Ora et lege – Broumov