The exhibition Architecture 58-89 is held at the Czech Center New York to celebrate the publication of the most extensive book to date on the subject of pre-revolutionary architecture built between 1958 and 1989. This two-volume publication of nearly 1400 pages is a significant contribution to the debate about the stigmatized architecture of the pre-revolutionary decades in Czechoslovakia. Among other crucial aspects, it deals with the topic of the complex stylistic transformations that led from inter-war functionalism to the doctrine of socialist realism, and thanks to political liberation, to the international style and late modernism, brutalism, high-tech, postmodernism, and the subsequent culmination in the neo-minimalism of the 1990s.
The exhibition opening will take place on April 5, 2023, at 6:30 PM and will be followed by a lecture by Vladimir 518.
Free registration for the exhibition opening and the lecture here.
The main focus of the exhibition is an original audiovisual installation by Vladimir 518, Ondřej Anděra and David Vrbík, which works in an original way with contemporary photographs or 3D models of key post-war buildings realized on the territory of the former Czechoslovakia.
"The overwhelming majority of so-called communist architecture has little in common with this ideology in terms of its formal aspects, yet a layer of negative emotions and misunderstanding still clings to it. Unfortunately, in the long term it has been impossible to find a healthy relationship with this now historical architecture, which is why one important building after another is disappearing from the streets of our cities. If we as a society fail to preserve at least what is left of the quality buildings from the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, we will erase a piece of our own history and cultural memory once and for all," says Vladimir 518, the editor of the project.
The individual parts of the project are devoted, among other things, to the fascinating realizations of the visionary Karel Prager (e.g. the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague at Petřiny or the former Federal Assembly Buildings), the timeless buildings of the couple Věra and Vladimír Machonin (among others Kotva Department store, the Czechoslovak Embassy in Berlin or the Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary) or the Liberec-based SIAL - a studio bringing together key architectural personalities such as Karel Hubáček, Miroslav Masák and Otakar Binar (Television transmitter and Ještěd Hotel, Ještěd Shopping Centre and Máj Department store), or the younger generation represented by Martin Rajnis, Jiří Suchomel, John Eisler and many others.
The main aim of the Architecture 58-89 project is, however, to introduce the general public to lesser-known names of the pre-revolutionary creative generations, such as Zdeněk Kuna, Karel Filsak, Richard Podzemný, Růžena Žertová, Stanislav Hubička, Viktor Rudiš, Zdeněk Edel and many others.
Vladimír Brož (*1978), also known as Vladimir 518, started as a prominent figure of Prague's graffiti scene. Later, he moved to music projects, illustrations, graphic novels and scenography. He collaborated with experimental theater group TOW (eg. Nightmare, 2004 or Turing Machine, 2006). He is the founder of audiovisual project SPAM (Karel Gott Prager, 2009; BIT, 2010; SMRT, 2014) and graphic newspaper KIX. He is known for his music projects with PSH group and solo albums, which received a number of awards (eg. Anděl 2008, 2013). He is the founder of the label and publishing house BiggBoss (eg. books 2666: Prague Odyssey, 2006; Tribes; City=Medium, 2012; Tribes 0, 2013, Tribes 90). Project Tribes emerged as a documentary series for Czech Television (ČT 2, 2015). In 2022, after 10-year work, he published his biggest work so far, a book Architecture 58-89, which will be accompanied by a documentary series for Czech Television (2023) and a documentary film (2024).
Photographs:
1. Supervision during the construction lifting of the former Federal Assembly building, 1966-1974 (archive of Vítkovice Ironworks)
2. Jaroslav Paroubek - Arnošt Navrátil - Radek Černý - Jan Sedláček, hotel Praha in Prague-Dejvice, 1971-1981, wrecked 2014 (Jan Sedláček, personal archive of Arnošt Navrátil)
3. Assembly of parts of the Czechoslovak Pavilion for EXPO 58 in the premises of Mostárna Stalingrad, 1957 (archive of Vítkovice Ironworks)
4. Richard F. Podzemný, Podolí Swimming Stadium, 1958-1965, in the backgound statue Sun by Vladimír Janoušek (Zdeněk Voženílek, personal archive of Alice Čermáková)
5. Karel Prager - Jiří Albrecht - Jiří Kadeřábek, construction of the former Federal Assembly building, 1966-1974 (archive of Vítkovice Ironworks)
6. Karel Hubáček - Zdeněk Zacahř - Zdeněk Patrman, television transmitter and hotel Ještěd, 1963-1973 (archive of Vítkovice Ironworks)
7. Věra Machoninová - Vladmír Machonin, department store Prior Kotva Prague, 1970-1975 (reproduction from publication by Josef Pechar, Československá architektura 1945-1977)
8. Alena Šrámková - Jan Šrámek, ČKD Building in Prague, 1974-1983 (archive of Alena Šrámková)
