Contemporary art will have a background in the Tranzitdisplay gallery

Prague - A new space in the center of Prague on Dittrichova Street plans to present contemporary visual art as well as provide information and knowledge about it. Today, it was opened by two associations, Galerie Display and the initiative Tranzit. Both associations have been active in the field of visual art and culture for several years and joined forces in preparing the multfunctional space project.
    The first exhibition was prepared by the Mexican artist Eric Beltrán, who selected his flagship project Ergo Sum for the Prague space. It presents a complex system of information in newspaper format, which connects textual and visual information in many layers. The author has left one part of the space painted with enlargements of diagrams and charts that represent various ways of visualizing thought processes.
    The viewer will recognize diagrams from many fields of human activity - from chemical formulas, various algorithms, demographic curves to so-called "viewer share pie charts" - the project demonstrates how many different ways information, and thus human society, can be organized. "This is what contemporary art is focusing on today, and what we want to focus on at Tranzitdisplay," said Tomáš Pospiszyl, a board member of the association, at today's press conference.
    One more exhibition and two lectures by foreign personalities are scheduled for the program before the end of this year - the first will be delivered next week by Slovenian philosopher and sociologist Slavoj Žižek.
    Galerie Display was located for five years in Holešovice, and its program is one of the most progressive in the presentation of both Czech and foreign contemporary art.
    It has newly united with the Central European initiative Tranzit, which has been active since 2003 in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria, and since 2005 also in Hungary. It supports contemporary art, among other things, through the provision of so-called development grants for young artists, art theorists, and curators.
    "In a time when knowledge, skills, and innovative thinking play a crucial role even in contemporary art, Tranzitdisplay aims to focus not only on exhibitions but also on the production and communication of new approaches and knowledge about contemporary art.
    That is why Tranzitdisplay defines itself as 'the base of contemporary art,'" said board member Vít Havránek. Part of the project is collaboration with publishing houses specialized in art books, an archive with a range of titles on DVD, a bookstore, and a reading room.
    Unlike the recently opened Meet Factory center, Tranzitdisplay will not focus on artist residency stays. It does not have the capacity for that, but it was also not the intention of the project’s authors. Tranzitdisplay aims to engage with contemporary art by offering reflections on its sources, theoretical foundations, or relationships with society.