Reality Czech

In Prague, the past lives alongside the present and the future like a silent but unavoidable house guest. The city’s National Gallery is based in the Veletrzní Palác, a six storey Functionalist behemoth built in 1928 to house the trade fairs of the flourishing central European city. Now proudly presenting an expansive collection of Czech and international masterpieces, it is directed by controversial director Milan Knízák, himself an artist who is not shy of installing vast examples of his own sculpture in the forecourt of the museum. While Knízák, like many, struggled during the Communist era to keep his avant-garde conceptual practice hidden from the censors, he also acknowledges the resourcefulness of those artists who turned to applied arts – such as the glass supremo Stanislav Libensky – in order to experiment with abstraction in disciplines less strictly monitored than painting and sculpture. In the Kampa Museum, president and owner Meda Mladek knew personally the many central European artists whose work she collected, including the early Cubist Frantisek Kupka who made mesmerising and rigorous forays into abstraction during his time in Paris in the early 20th century.

Even the city’s major kunsthalle-style space, the Galerie Rudolfinum, is housed in a neo-Renaissance palace, which it shares with the city’s Philharmonic Orchestra. While not all work would stand up to the building’s richly coloured (and protected) walls, the gallery programmes four shows a year by Czech and international artists such as the painters Jiri Sopko and Neo Rauch. The institution is soon to be challenged by another non-profit space on the other side of town. DOX Centre for Contemporary Art is situated in a quiet suburban area, the building casting an imposing silhouette with its gleaming white angles. Due to open in the spring of 2008, the vast and elegantly designed space hopes to provide an internationally recognised venue with exhibitions, conferences, screenings and concerts. The building’s optimism and style is undeniable; the proof of the pudding will be in the way it is used by the local art world (London’s blustering Louise T. Blouin Institute springs to mind).

A smaller but no less dynamic space is also currently a dusty building site, due to open in November. An amalgamation of two previously successful independent projects – Display and the transzit initiative – Tranzitdisplay has found a home in the cellar of a former Communist Health Insurance Workers’ Pension Organisation. Directors Vit Havránek and David Kulhánek plan to build on their already impressive programmes of publications, seminars and exhibitions that, more than most of their contemporaries, are firmly plugged into international networks of art production and mediation. This is a function that is not well fulfilled by the current incarnation of the Prague Biennial. Despite having contributions from some well-known and talented artists, the 21 sub-sections of the exhibition (held in a cavernous former factory) did most of the work no favours (‘Glocal Outsiders’ and ‘Fuck Off Macho Painters’ were two particularly memorable exhibition titles). In fact the best work was from the 1960s – 80s: the generation of Czech conceptualists that included Petr Stembera, Karel Miler and Jiri Kovanda. The practice of Roman Signer, currently showing his laugh-out-loud-funny but gently touching work at Prague’s Langhans Gallery (a non-profit photography space), owes much to these witty and romantic artists whose work germinated in a very different political climate than Signer’s native Switzerland.

For young artists working in contemporary Prague, prospects are good and look set to improve. A small but supportive art scene means that studio spaces such as Karlin have become crucial hubs for practitioners; the generous studios are complimented by a residency programme, gallery space, library, archive and publishers (Umulec, the Czech Republic’s foremost art magazine has offices there). As far as commercial galleries go, there are a few spaces that manage to prosper despite the thinness of the local contemporary art market. Jiri Svestka is perhaps Prague’s best-known and most established gallerist; his large space spreads over two floors and includes an annexe for auxiliary exhibitions. Despite having a show by British painter Clare Woods on my visit, his roster consists of largely Czech artists including Markus Huemer, Marketa Othova, Michal Pechoucek and Jakup Hosek (who also runs the energetic A.M. 180 Collective space with its bi-weekly exhibition programme). Hunt Kastner Artworks is a far younger gallery, but has clearly won the admiration of the young artists working in the city. Again it focuses on emerging and mid-career Czech artists who, as with Jiri Svestka, it hopes to introduce to an international audience. Some of the strongest are Jiri Skala, Jan Serych, Tomás Vanek and Petra Vargová, who currently has an exhibition of interactive sculpture at the gallery. While shadows of the past darken every corner of daily life in Prague, the vast majority of what I saw on my visit was fixing its gaze firmly on the future.