Loos in Pilsen - the exhibition continues to New York

Multimedia exhibition Loos in Pilsen continues further into the world. After its successful presentation in Tel Aviv, New York is next in line. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, January 21, 2021, at the Czech Center New York gallery located in the Bohemian National Hall, and due to the pandemic, it will adhere to strict measures. The exhibition will also be presented this year in Paris, Tokyo, Brussels, Berlin, Munich, and Vienna. The exhibition was created in collaboration with Czech Centers and the West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen, with partners being the city of Pilsen and Pilsen-TURISMUS. The author of the exhibition is Petr Domanický.
The opening will take place in an online environment due to COVID measures. This makes the accompanying program all the more important, which CC NY is preparing for this exhibition. On Friday, February 26, there will be a broadcast of a concert from one of the Pilsen Loos interiors, specifically from the apartment of the Voglov family at Klatovská 19, where the local Pilsner Jazz Band will perform, and representatives of the city, county, and West Bohemian Gallery will greet America. The main accompanying event will be a Czech-Austrian-American professional online conference titled Loos: Searching for Space in Modern Life, which will address both historical transatlantic architectural contexts and their implications for the present. On the American side, the project is supported by Czech embassies in NY, Washington, and Chicago, CzechTourism, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, and a number of personalities from the academic and architectural fields.
MIROSLAV KONVALINA, DIRECTOR OF THE CZECH CENTER NEW YORK: “Adolf Loos's stay in the USA significantly influenced him. He spent just three years here (1893-1896) and mostly made a living through manual work. He studied the style of Louis Sullivan, a prominent representative of the Chicago School. His most significant achievement on the American continent is the unsuccessful design for the Chicago Tribune project. His design, reminiscent of a Doric column, inspired postmodernists by using metaphors and historical motifs. After his return, Loos incorporated some elements of American houses into his work, such as a residential 'hall' with a relaxation corner, fireplace, and beam ceiling.”
The aim of the exhibition is to present Loos as a top European architect of his time. The connection between Loos and Pilsen was logical, as Pilsen has the most Loos realizations right after Vienna. According to the organizers, the exhibition will remind the famous West Bohemian city, so to speak, "from a different perspective." Through the interiors and the stories of their owners, families of prominent entrepreneurs who had to emigrate around the world, including America, with the rise of Nazism.
ROMAN MUSIL, DIRECTOR OF THE WEST BOHEMIAN GALLERY IN PLSEN: “I am glad that the exhibition Loos and Pilsen is traveling through Czech Centers abroad even in this difficult time marked by the coronavirus pandemic. For the West Bohemian Gallery, this exhibition is an opportunity to present the work of our researchers, in this case, Petr Domanický, curator of the architectural collection, who has long been engaged with the topic. Pilsen, together with Vienna, is among the cities with the highest number of interior realizations by this world-renowned architect, and one of them, the so-called Semler Residence, is managed by the West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen. I believe that the exhibition will be attractive to the American public, especially since Loos worked in the United States from 1893 to 1896.”

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