Dozens of people have signed the petition to preserve the Mázhaus Gallery

Pardubice - About a hundred people have signed a petition since Friday for the preservation of the Pardubice Gallery Mázhaus. The exhibition hall operates in rented city spaces, and the city hall has already notified the operators that they will receive a termination notice at the end of the year. Today, several participants of the Prague Days of Restlessness and the organizers of the petition For a Cultural Prague also supported the artists. CTK was informed about this by Alexandra Prokopová from the Union of Visual Artists of the Pardubice Region, which operates the gallery.
    "The council that voted for the termination did not have adequate information to make a competent decision," said Prokopová, who hopes that further negotiations with the city management will overturn the previous decision.
    The gallery has been located at Pernštýnské Square for five years. It opens on weekends, when the square has the highest visitor attendance. During the week, it invites students and pupils for guided tours by appointment. Throughout its existence, it has exhibited works by 76 artists. Attendance is around 10,000 people per year.
    The city hall argued that it would prefer non-conflict exhibitions of amateurs and charitable events. In winter, wedding guests complained about the artistic works they encountered while passing through the gallery to the ceremonial hall. According to Deputy Mayor Štěpánka Fraňková, people were forced to see exhibitions that they would not voluntarily attend.
    Gallery Mázhaus in Pardubice started a project "We're Ending/We're Starting," aimed at young artists from the region. It also organizes exhibitions of Czech artists who work abroad. It deals with the intersection of science and art called Chemistry Industry and organizes international visual festivals every year. Recently, it was also approached by the technology center of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic to participate in the artistic aspect of a nanoforum that will take place next year.
    So far, the city has not found suitable spaces for the gallery. It proposed the so-called Sýpka Na Příhrádku, but it belongs to the National Heritage Institute, which is set to reconstruct it next year. Divadlo 29, with its focus, does not meet the requirements of an exhibition hall, Prokopová said.
    "It's a great place in the city center where contemporary art can be presented. It would be a shame if the gallery were to close," added Paulina Skavova for CTK, who, together with Markéta Korečková, will present the exhibition Sculptress at Home in Pardubice. One of the objects that the audience can view is the sculpture Gunwoman. According to Skavova, every woman occasionally yearns to exchange household duties for adventure and become an action heroine.