Landscape Festival Praha 2024 - pozvánka

In Prague on May 31 – The Landscape Festival is returning to Prague once again, after last year's edition in the Highlands, it will be hosted by the Czech capital, and like in the previous decade, it will have its base in the Žižkov Freight Station building. From June 13 to the end of September, Žižkov and part of Malešice will be enlivened by more than two dozen site-specific architectural interventions and art installations. The festival traditionally addresses broader contexts of architecture, landscape, public space, and art. Its goal is not just to diversify the urban landscape during the summer, but to offer and seek ways to utilize public spaces, whether for entertainment or relaxation. For example, a twelve-meter balance beam by Mjölk architects will serve for play and sports, while a wooden pergola by the same architects will serve for rest. The Nami Ňami studio considers the smallest ones and will offer their installation Nami play, providing an alternative view of play spaces as part of the festival. Jan Zdvořák created another monumental object primarily from recycled materials for the Landscape Festival, while Elhl & Koumar architects are the authors of a temporary gazebo in Jarov. Passersby will be invited to sit in a giant chair by Zdeněk Ruffer, while a pair of artists, Aleš Hnízdil and Aleš Kurz, will draw attention to civilizational waste. This year, Dagmar Šubrtová, Anna Beata Háblová, MOD architects, Epos 257, the Prague Idiots studio, and zerozero will also participate in the festival. Students from AVU from the intermedia I and intermedia II studios will also offer their visions. The festival route will connect the Žižkov Freight Station and Malešický Forest. The Landscape Festival is prepared by the curatorial team Anna Borovská, Lada Kolaříková, and Dan Merta.

On June 13, the festival will symbolically kick off at the Žižkov Freight Station with a free open-air concert featuring Vladimír 518, DJ Mika Trafika, and the band WWW Neureobeat. The festival will run until September 30, 2024, and as always, all events are accessible for free.

The three-month international project is being prepared in collaboration with the capital city of Prague, Prague 3 Municipal District, and IPR Prague. It is held under the patronage of the Deputy Mayor of the Capital City of Prague, Petr Hlaváček, and the Deputy Mayor of Prague 3, Pavel Dobeš. The Landscape Festival is organized by Architectura, z.s., led by Dan Merta.

The theme of this year's edition, subtitled "A Way Out of the City," is the initiation of the process of "tactical urbanism" and "temporary land use" by local residents and communities. The phenomenon of temporary use plays a significant role in both the search for the future shape of public spaces and the area of the functionalist monument of the Žižkov Freight Station. Therefore, besides architects, urban planners, artists, and landscape architects, the broader public will be involved in this process as well. "This can create an informal urban laboratory and experiments testing the success of various uses, connecting urbanism, the development sphere, art, activist groups, and the widest public. Moreover, we offer the opportunity to visit and experience a unique Prague wilderness in an unconventional way,” explains Dan Merta, the founder and director of the Landscape Festival. This is confirmed, for example, by the temporary installation of a wooden staircase called Žižkovská Highline by the Archwerk studio near the Ponec Theater, which has been serving its purpose since 2018 thanks to the Landscape Festival and recently underwent reconstruction.

The festival will indicate a green line that, with the revitalization of the brownfield of the Žižkov Freight Station, will become a path connecting the former railway line area Krenovka (Florenc), the hill of St. Cross, and a series of undeveloped wooded areas around Malešický Forest, extending to the natural parks of Smetanka and Klánovice–Čihadla with ties to the open countryside beyond the metropolis. The path will offer a different view of the urbanism and topography of Žižkov and part of Malešice, a meeting of the city and nature and the search for their balance. Through temporary artistic and architectural interventions, as well as performances, theater, movement art, and other forms of participatory art, it will provide a deeper experience of nature and initiate the process of discovering the urban landscape and the potential of public space.

The festival program will also include several thematic exhibitions and accompanying lectures and discussions addressing topics such as art in public space, tactical and green urbanism. Some events will focus directly on the development of the Prague 3 district, where the festival will predominantly take place. "Prague 3 supports the Landscape Festival, among other reasons, for its ability to open discussions about the future of public space. The festival does not remain stuck in the past nor does it linger in presenting the present, but it also addresses the future shape of specific locations. This is clearly seen, for example, in the transformations of Krenovka or Tachovské náměstí, about which the Landscape Festival opened discussions years ago and which are now completed. There has also been much talk about the Vítkov hill, where the first stage of extensive reconstruction is already underway," explains Pavel Dobeš, the Deputy Mayor of Prague 3, adding: "For this year's edition, I see the development of the brownfield at the former Žižkov Freight Station as a key theme, particularly the future of the historic building. My goal is for this cultural monument to become the cultural and social heart of the future city district. We will discuss how this center could look, we will seek inspiration abroad, and address why the capital city should invest in this unique industrial monument." A part of the festival will also be the exhibition "New Žižkov," where architect Eva Jiřičná will present her largest residential project, the Center of New Žižkov, with a unique undulating tower. With her design, architect Jiřičná won a major international architectural competition among 98 studios from 30 countries. Subsequently, for five years, modifications of the winning project took place according to the requirements of various institutions, to achieve agreement on the heights and overall construction solution.

The festival took place in Žižkov for the first time in 2014, when it initiated the rescue of the unique functionalist complex of the Žižkov Freight Station, which was declared a cultural monument in 2013. It was also held in Prague in 2015, 2018, 2020, and 2022. In 2021, the festival highlighted the beauty of Lower Žižkov with the project Žižkovská spojka for a month. Architectural and urban interventions should be perceived as acupuncture-level participation that allows for creative searching for the future transformation of often overlooked locations. Just as there was a transformation of the Krenovka area, which the Landscape Festival has been transforming and settling with the support of Prague 3 in collaboration with other organizations since 2018 – Krenovka, Sudop Real, Tanec Praha, Unijazz. Unfortunately, this is happening with the complete indifference of the owner of surrounding plots – the Railway Administration.

EXHIBITIONS

The Tokyo Toilets
A photographic exhibition presenting a unique collection of public toilets in the Shibuya district of Tokyo

Nami play
Projects of inspirational playgrounds/design of play interventions

European Prize for Urban Public Space
A biennial award for the highest quality projects in the EU, organized by CCCB since 2000

Terrains and Territories
Semester projects of the Tsikoliya/Janků studio – Archip Prague

Green General and Urban Studies of Development in Prague 3
Current and upcoming projects regarding the specified areas

Industrial Topography / Cultural Clusters / Czech Republic – Europe
A selection of 40 transformations of industrial architecture into successful cultural centers

New Žižkov
Presentation of the new residential district project according to the winning competition proposal from AI Design studio by Eva Jiřičná

Landscate 02
Inspirational skateboard parks in the Czech Republic and Europe

EXHIBITING ARTISTS & ARCHITECTS / selection
• Dagmar Šubrtová
• Ehl Koumar architects
• MÓD architects
• Aleš Hnízdil
• Epos 257
• Ivan Kafka
• AVU – intermedia I, intermedia II
• Radek Kolařík
• Jan Tyrpekl
• Jan Zdvořák
• Anna Beata Háblová
• Mjölk
• Benedikt Tolar
• Miloš Šejn
• U/U Studio
• Prague Idiots
• zerozero