Landscape festival at Žižkov Cargo Station invites you to its summer program

Three hundred. Such is the average daily attendance in the area of the Cargo Station in Prague's Žižkov (NNŽ). And on days when social and cultural events are held here, that number increases several times. Until September 9, 2014, visitors to this new location on Prague's cultural map can enjoy film or theater performances, exhibitions, or professional lectures, or simply relax on the sandy beach and in the new urban gardens with a creative bar, potentially over 30,000 visitors may pass through the station.
While the extensive exhibition project on landscape architecture and the use of public space, the Landscape Festival, is undoubtedly the main attraction for many, others come here for its practical and often spontaneous overlaps. There are still very few opportunities to learn about gardening or agriculture in the city, unique refreshments in the scorching summer, or atypical play corners for children. The interest in these areas also reflects trends in leisure activities.
Among the biggest planned attractions is undoubtedly the premiere and two-week public screening of the film adaptation of Mariusz Szczygieł's bestseller Gottland. The film, which will be screened for the first time on August 18, 2014, is directed by Petr Hátle and produced by Tomáš Hrubý. The Žižkov station will also host the performance "Po Fredrikovi" by the ensemble Letí along with the Prague Pride festival on August 14-15, 2014.
“We are excited about how Prague residents and increasingly foreign tourists or numerous trips from outside Prague have embraced the revitalization of the cargo station. Many producers and promoters are coming forward who want to utilize the unconventional potential of this place. What we started as an attempt to revitalize this magical spot has resulted in a new vineyard, dozens of gardens and workshops, and unforeseen opportunities for theater and filmmakers,” evaluates the first half of the Landscape Festival Dan Merta, the head of the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, who, along with the Prague 3 Municipality and other partners, was involved in the inception of this project.
As part of the rich accompanying program to the Landscape Festival, leading architects and urban planners from the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Denmark, and Germany will take turns at the cargo station. For instance, a dog walking event with expert commentary by art historian and architecture theorist Zdeněk Lukeš received great responses among seniors. Similar interest is expected for public discussions about the public space of Prague 3 (September 2) or the future of the Cargo Station Žižkov itself (September 8), with participation from all parties directly related to NNŽ.
The exhibition section is further complemented by musical performances, landscape and land-art installations, or examples of guerrilla interventions into public spaces. This section features significant personalities from the domestic artistic and landscaping milieu - for example, Kurt Gebauer, Lenka Klodová, Vladimír Sitta, Eva Wagnerová, or the urban gardeners’ association Kokoza and the Proměny Foundation.
The aim of the organizers of the Landscape Festival (Jaroslav Fragner Gallery and the Prague 3 Municipality) is to revitalize the location of the cultural landmark of the Cargo Station Žižkov during the summer months, a place that may seem forgotten but has enormous potential for the future.
The exhibition part of the Landscape Festival at the Cargo Station Žižkov is complemented by an exhibition at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, which focuses on the site-specific emblematic realizations of the landscape architecture discipline. Curator Dan Merta and young creators from the studio 4dim under the name CzechScape present the most prominent creations that testify to the qualities of contemporary Czech landscape architecture with its overlaps into other related disciplines in the last twenty years, from private gardens to interventions in public spaces.
“The theme is conceived as a complex image of the landscape itself, garden spaces as well as urban landscapes, as a shared architecture under one sky. The selection presents works created under the direction of the currently fully active generation of architects and artists of our time but also includes a brief comparison with the works of the previous practicing generation, which current creators have been influenced by to varying degrees and which they naturally build upon,” describe the content Klára Stachová, Andrea Honejsková, and Jakub Hepp from 4dim. They reached for more well-known realizations of the mca studio (Bastion in Prague), Josef Pleskot (Jelení příkop), or Cigler Marani Architects in the office complex in Prague’s Chodov.
In many ways, the section focused on the history of the field of Czech landscape architecture is also groundbreaking, shaped in the Czech Republic by figures such as Ladislav Žák, legend of the field Ivar Otruba, or Vladimír Sitta. Indeed, all of the named individuals, their collaborators, and successors are also a part of the extensive Czech-English publication CzechScape.

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