<title>Iron Curtain Landscape - Invitation to the Exhibition</title>Iron Curtain Landscape - Invitation to the Exhibition

Andrea Pujmanová - Stories of the Iron Curtain
The Iron Curtain – ingenious, inhumane, absurd. A system of wires, into which vigilant border guards electrified at many points, along with barricades and landmines, has claimed hundreds of lives. Not only those who attempted to get to the other side, but also those who guarded the achievements of Gottwald's socialism with weapons in hand.
This construction is a reminder of stories that really happened, stories that should not be forgotten.
The structure is located near the Austrian border under Mikulov. The linearity of the structure emerges from the imaginary axis Mikulov – Stories of the Iron Curtain – Castle Falkenstein (Austria), which shapes its main symbolism, namely the journey. A journey to freedom.
The construction consists of two high six-meter concrete walls that cut through the path of a small hill. The path that visitors must take to get to the other side. At first, the path leads straight, but after several dozen meters, it sharply descends down into the underground, into darkness and uncertainty. To get out, one must navigate a labyrinth of five-meter walls that seem to close in on them. Gradually, as one progresses further and climbs back up the ramp, the walls lower and narrow, and more and more light breaks through between them. The gaps between them also widen. One eventually emerges again between the two main high walls, which begin to open up, and after approximately 120 meters, one enters the open countryside – into Austria. The return is along the border on a cycling path.
The access road is straight and leads from Mikulov perpendicularly to the border. It ends in a parking lot that serves as a base for the memorial, as well as for the nearby cycling path. An information center, a café, and toilets are located here. The parking lot accommodates 48 cars.
The earth that would be excavated during the construction of the memorial would be used to create an embankment around the parking lot. It would serve as a connecting element between these two places.

Tomáš Zavoral - Museum of the Iron Curtain in Mikulov
Stories of escapes through the curtain of Mikulov. Different beginnings, different courses, different directions, different endings. Six exhibitions of six stories in six blocks.
The blocks with exhibition stories intersect the building of the fire station located in the center of Mikulov on Svobody Street. For studying totalitarian regimes or sitting down for a coffee, we can use the library in the garden.

Martin Málek - Exhibition of Extracted Quarries in Mikulov
My goal was to revitalize the last of the three Mikulov quarries.
The created tubes connect to the tourist path through the limestone ridge of Svatý kopeček and are meant to lead people into the quarry itself.
Inside the tubes, certain viewpoints into the surrounding landscape are revealed and are part of the exhibition dedicated to the extracted quarries in Mikulov.
Over forty years, large parts of three hills – Svatý kopeček, Janičův vrch, and Turold – have been excavated here. Thus, a place with a former promenade alley, park, gazebo, municipal swimming pool, skating rink, and Marian mill has vanished.
The steel structure is clad and simultaneously ventilated with perforated metal sheets.
At the top, above the walls of the quarry, a small café is cantilevered with a view directed north towards the Pavlovské hills.
By its character, the object is meant to remind of the extraction in the quarry, connect with the cultural values of the place, and make the quarry accessible to people.

Tomáš Petermann - Lines of the Lánské Meadows
Materialized Czech-Austrian border: the Dyje River, supported by a significant flood embankment on the Austrian side, separates two different worlds – the agricultural landscape on the Austrian side and the unique floodplain forests at the confluence of the Dyje and Morava rivers, and the Lánské meadows created by their deforestation with typical remnants of solitary oaks. Storks.
Controlled flooding in the spring months, which was adopted in the 1990s, revitalizes the place after regulatory interventions on the Dyje from previous years. The Iron Curtain persists – there are no roads across the river, across the border.
The goal of my intervention is to open this unique landscape to people, allow for short-term stays, and guide them. I propose lines of elevated paths that make the landscape accessible during the spring floods. The landscape opens up in a new east-west direction. The lines guide you through the landscape, individual inserted objects entice you from afar, providing places for rest. The materials used blend with the surroundings.
Colonnade – a concrete dominant of the embankment, an observation point, a guiding point from Austria
Bathing area – floating pontoons on a dead arm of the Dyje
Fireplace, room – floating on pontoons along with walkways
Gallery – an island, a steel mound for cultural events in no man's land, coming alive and playing in the wind or rain
Observation points – rest areas for enjoying the nature of the Lánské meadows or fields near Lanžhot

Eva Železná - The Path of Water
How can I transform the story I am contemplating into reality around us through atmospheres and the surrounding space? A different world behind the wall…
The intention to (re)create a world that does not have at all good conditions for its emergence and good aspects of the concept must also be sought in seemingly poor properties of the propositions of the place and operate for future spas.
The spa in Mikulov was conceived as a natural path of water and humans in the landscape of the Czech-Austrian border.
The functional scheme of the spa is inspired by history: you enter an enclosed district of baths, orchards, and bathing, where along the path to the building, a simple rectangular order of the park calms the visitor's distracted mind and prepares them for the actual stay in the spa facility. The various levels and initially more complex (worse) assumptions for the movement of water and humans transform into a playful and thoughtful plot of views and perspectives into the landscape, the intimacy of saunas, water sprays, and diverse moods and atmospheres created by water surfaces.
In Mikulov, a museum of water should not and does not emerge, but rather outdoor and enclosed spaces that will show all visitors new horizons.

Matyáš Švejdík - Gallery of Landscapes
My project seeks to bridge the trauma of the Iron Curtain, not by reminding it, but by negating it. Using the example of continuous landscape, it aims to show the continuity of the world. Or at least Europe. It seeks to express the thesis that the landscape knows no borders; those are merely a human construct. Through views on both sides of the former barrier (outer landscape) and through diverse paintings by Central European authors (landscapes of the mind), I would like to show similarities rather than differences. Its ambition is to make people think about the topic and space in question. It also aims to reconnect what was separated by history.