Prague: The Town Hall has selected a tenant for the Špála Gallery

Prague - The City Hall of Prague 1 has selected a tenant for the spaces of the Václav Špála Gallery on Národní Street. The housing enterprise in liquidation that manages the premises is likely to sign a contract with them. However, the expert commission that assisted in the selection of the tenant is concerned about this decision. From the two finalists in the selection process, the city hall recommended the one that, according to them, did not declare a quality exhibition program.
At the beginning of the process, however, they offered - against the basic financial requirement of the housing enterprise - approximately double the rent and an investment of up to two million Czech crowns into the structural reconstruction of the gallery. At the same time, they did not provide any budget for the operation and exhibition activities of the gallery, which was in violation of the tender conditions. Therefore, the expert commission will ask the city hall to justify their choice. CTK was informed of this today by commission member, gallery owner Vlasta Čiháková-Noshiro.
The selection procedure was announced by the housing enterprise in liquidation at the beginning of this year. Five candidates applied, and the commission selected two proposals for the final round: the project submitted by artist Pavel Humhal on behalf of the civic association Semma, and the project of the civic association Artlab 2007 (a group of artists Milan Salák, Jan Kadlec, Jiří David, and the company Herbita).
Although during the public presentation in mid-August, seven attendees voted for the Artlab 2007 project and five for Semma, the city hall designates Semma as the winner.
The councilors of the City District of Prague 1 contradict the commission's voting outcome with their decision, even though they themselves convened the commission to decide the winner of the competition. The commission included, besides Čiháková, a representative of the mayor of Prague 1, a heritage expert from the city hall, the liquidators of the Prague Housing Enterprise, a Ministry of Culture employee, art historian Jiří Ševčík, and architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš.
The Prague 1 Housing Enterprise has been in liquidation for several years. It manages over twenty state-owned buildings, including the structure on Loretánské Square, known from the court case of Marta Chadimová. The City Hall of Prague 1 previously offered the state to purchase the buildings from the enterprise. However, the transaction ultimately did not take place.