A tour around Futura - a new centre for contemporary art in Prague
In the middle of the Prague district of Smichov, just ten minutes away from the city centre, a new multifunctional art space called "Futura" opened recently, focusing on the presentation and promotion of both international and local contemporary fine art. When I visited it, it seemed like an oasis - cool and quiet in the bustling city scorched by a summer heat wave.
"We've been working for a long time to open a larger centre for contemporary art here in Prague. Quite a few spaces have closed down recently: Spalova galerie will be gone, MXM gallery has disappeared, and the art scene is becoming more and more [divided into] a lot of small commercial galleries and then larger institutions. So we wanted to do something in between and create a real centre for art and events.
There are four of us together: Camille Hunt, Alberto Di Stefano and Eugenio Percossi and myself. We all we met each other just eight moths ago and we immediately decided this is what we want to do. We looked for a space and we found this space which is an old factory. We decided this is perfect, with the combination of the cellar and the sort of white cube spaces - it's just perfect for art in our opinion, so we immediately decided to take it."
Marisa Ravelli-Prihodova is the programme director of Futura.
"We get proposals from artists, we also choose some artists ourselves. We all sit down as a sort of committee and we decide what to exhibit here. We are also working with galleries abroad, institutions abroad and artists from abroad. We really want to be an international space but also, of course, open to local artists."
On a hot August afternoon I asked Marisa to show me around the four-floor complex which with some 800 square metres is one of the largest art spaces in the Czech capital.
"This is Hall I. Hall I and Hall II we reserve for more established artists, artists that are a little bit older, have had more shows, more exhibitions. Right now, our exhibition is called "Survey '03" and it is a selection from different generations of Czech artists, even some artists from Brno, so it is a real mix. This is an installation by Veronika Bromova, and the whole piece, the photos together with the objects, is called "Efekt defekt". I believe she is trying to comment of childhood and maybe the loss of innocence. Some sort of innocence and happiness and yet also a loss of innocence and the dangers of being a child... It is two figures that have almost no face, they just have eyes...
...I think kind of a nice contrast are the works by Petr Nikl. He is normally known as a painter. These pieces are from him, they are sort of mutant mushrooms. There is a certain beauty, but on the other side, there is some darkness, or something is a bit wrong...
...And here we have some really nice pieces from Jan Mancuska. It is made with just colour thread and nails. It is quite simple but I think the effect is quite amazing. It really looks three-dimensional. As you come back, you are almost wondering, is it a drawing? - but then you're like no, it's not, because you can see the three-dimensionality of it...
...And this is a new piece from Krystof Kintera. He is on a stipend in Holland for two years, so it explains the Heineken beer cans. It looks like a cactus but he calls it "Homegrown". So I think it is also references to drugs and alcohol and again, this sort of natural element. But then again, with the Heineken cans, it is a reference to recycled art or garbage art...
...Our upstairs spaces are filled with natural daylight, very white and ephemeral, and these downstairs spaces have much more of a cellar style, which we are happy about because it gives artists more possibilities. Jan Kotik was really happy to show this here. It has an underground club feeling where you'd have a band or a rock concert. It is also really nice and cool down here... The sound that you are hearing is an actual extract from Black Sabbath. I'm sure their fans would know immediately...
...Here in the future we're hoping in about a month and a half from now that this space will be a working bookstore. And right now, just as a provisory style, we had it designed by Tomas Lahoda... And in the future this will be our main entrance, so there will be a reception desk here... and then this will be a café...
...Here, we are calling it our video box spaces. We chose five different younger video artists from the Czech arts scene. And this actual video that is on now is a Marek Ther and Ondrej Brody collaboration called "Love Story". There are about five or six videos from each artist on each tape, so visitors can come and they can spend hours and hours to see them all if they want or they can just come and see one...
...This is our Katerina Vincourova - she also has the piece at the front entrance, the big inflatable object called "Train station" and these are also by her. She works a lot with this inflatable material. It is one of the main materials, let's say, in the last years of her work...
...It's nice that we also have the garden here...
...So these are two untitled works by David Cerny and they were commissioned works. And inside the large mutant figures, giants, there is a video playing and on the video there are two figures in rubber masks and they are feeding each other a sort of white soup."
The last work mentioned, a permanent installation by artist David Cerny, made headlines recently as the two masked figures on the video represent the Czech President Vaclav Klaus and the head of the National Gallery Milan Knizak. The TV sets are placed in the behinds of the giant statues so you have to climb two tall ladders to be able to see the videos.
As Marisa Ravelli-Prihodova told me, Futura is not only an exhibition space. It also provides a forum for cultural and arts events such as film showings, performances, concerts, readings and lectures.
"We really want to start an events programme which would be organised in collaboration with us and outside individuals. For example, we just have a proposal for a performance duo from Kyoto, Japan, which we are going to show here in October and as I said before, we want to emphasise the international aspect of our programme. Also the events are good because with lectures or film showings, you can supplement the visual art exhibitions. In other words, you can give more information to the public, present more and also get a very different viewing audience to come and see visual art as well, because if we have an exhibition up and then we have a performance or a film showing, the sort of crowds or audiences that usually go to those things maybe would not normally go to see a visual art exhibition. So I think it is also a matter of getting the sort of various and multidisciplinary arts together, and you get those audiences together, so it makes connections between people and more things can happen and come out of that."
The Futura gallery wants to present contemporary fine art to the broader public, bring together Czech and international artists but also, as Marisa Ravelli-Prihodova says, another of its goals is also to make connections between the arts in this country.
"I feel there is a sort of real separation between the arts here. There is a music community and a theatre community and a film community, and there are not very many crossovers very often. We want to make connections between the arts, even with architects and musicians. It's nice; I think more interesting projects can come out of it afterwards."
You can find more information about the new gallery on www.futuraprojekt.com.
