SOLAR CITY

Our architectonic heritage from the era of 1948–1989 puts us in front of two paradoxes: Firstly, while the public perceives it as the socialism-created scenery of nonfreedom and thus non-aesthetic, the last fifteen years has seen a huge rise in the interest of professionals, architecture fans and artists in this heritage. Secondly, this architecture becomes obsolete rather quickly and for the reasons mentioned above, there has often been no political will to invest into its renewal and revitalization without diminishing its historical and aesthetic value, yet there is a huge amount of these buildings – almost one third of Czech citizens live in housing estates and there are individually designed seats of various institutions as well as shopping centres that have become an inseparable part of many Czech cities. These are the paradoxes the exhibition will try to explore both in the context of the whole republic and in the local context of Usti nad Labem.

Project authors and curators / Martina John and Ladislav Zikmund-Lender
Artists / Tomáš Džadoň, Eva Kmentová, Olbram Zoubek, Marta Tabery, Jan Sramek, Jiří Pitrmuc, Adéla Waldhauser, Matouš Lipus, Ivana Zochová
Graphic design / Magdaléna Gurská
Accompanying program / Viktorie Chomaničová, Pavel Loskotová and the Hraničář team
Collaboration / Lenka Hájková (National Heritage Institute), Department of German Studies UJEP and Usti nad Labem City Museum

The exhibition and the half-year thematic program will run until July 26, 2019. The exhibition project is realized in cooperation with the National Monument Institute.