Debata a křest publikace Navzdory / architelkti 1969-1989-2019

The following accepted participants for the debate:
Anna Háblová
Kateřina Vídenová
Miroslav Masák
Ivan Vavřík
Jan Kasl
moderators: Petr Krajči and Petr Vorlík

The catalog will be available this evening at a discounted price!

The exhibition “Despite” looks back at Czech architecture over the past half-century – from 1969 (the beginning of normalization) to the present. It presents its actors defining themselves against both spiritual and commercial totalitarianism, with the main themes being the freedom of architectural creation, the defense of public space, unofficial structures, and exceptional achievements (exhibitions, happenings, preservation of buildings and public space, restoration of significant buildings, etc.). In addition to recalling these personalities, groups, and events, emphasis is placed on the contemporary situation, historical, political, or artistic contexts, and the development of events or individual institutions and associations. A dividing period is set from November 1989 (the collapse of the union of architects) until the establishment of the Czech Chamber of Architects, which concluded the architects' efforts to legally anchor their rights and freely engage in their profession.

The basic theme can be simplified to the moral integrity of creators, their work and attitudes regardless of contemporary ideological or commercial pressures, mainstream trends, or the easy path given any concessions. We can approach this topic from multiple perspectives: by project type (many creators simultaneously engage in moralizing activism and "spreading goodwill," but also questionable orders for a totalitarian regime or controversial personalities), over time (many creators also started their professional careers as young, moralizing revolutionaries who want to "do everything differently," but with growing fame, responsibility, project size, and age, they typically shift into standardized or predominantly commercial routine), according to the nature of specific work (to what extent it is a resistance against the establishment and to what extent it is merely a "simple" effort to do their work well and ethically), or based on expected responses (how much these phenomena are monitored and reflected by the media or to what extent the establishment, against which they define themselves, can "evaluate" or commercially and politically exploit them).

The curators did not aim to divide the architectural scene into "bad and good" creators, but rather to show how interesting and strong the current of "islands of positive deviation" has been, how certain (so far poorly or not at all described) events have contributed to the development of architecture, responded to pan-European trends (postmodernism, technology, interest in heritage care, public space, ecology, theoretical work), and how architects reflect on their own influence on the shape of public space and their social and pedagogical responsibility.

The exhibition presents about eighty architects and activities in six categories: despite alienation (efforts to transform the dysfunctional relationship between humans and the city), despite immobility (support for change, meetings, education), despite demolition (care for existing environments and cultural heritage), despite exploitation (activities in favor of resource conservation and evaluation of potential, social and environmental responsibility against consumerism), despite stereotypes (responses to mechanical and superficial approaches, mainstream, and simplification), and despite exclusivity (creation stemming from tradition and genius loci, (non)targeted regionalism, humility). An independent chapter is then a section titled despite the union, which introduces the civic forum (of architects) and the situation before the establishment of the professional chamber. At the same time, the curators want to engage visitors in dialogue, thanks to the option to add "who is missing here."