Martin Roubík at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery

“I never did anything alone. Always with some group of people, or at least with one person.”

At the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague, interested parties have the opportunity to learn about the personality and work of the proponent of the conceptual approach Martin Roubík (1949–2008) until November 8.
The exhibition in the main exhibition hall is logically divided into two basic sections, one of which presents works created during Roubík's life in Norway – where he emigrated after being arrested and expelled from the school for political reasons during his studies at the Prague AAUP – and the subsequent section is devoted to works created before his departure abroad and after his return to the Czech Republic in 1999. From the Norwegian phase, we can see, for example, the project for the airport in Hurum, the art museum in Lillehammer, the project for a fig garden at Prague Castle, or the reconstruction of the Czech embassy in Oslo; for the Czechoslovak or Czech stage of work, let us at least mention the projects for the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce or the Grand Egyptian Museum. The latter task represented the central theme of the entire “Czech” period. Advancing among the twenty finalists of one of the most significant international competitions of the early new century, in which over a thousand and five hundred architectural teams participated, was a tremendous satisfaction for the author duo Martin Roubík – Regina Loukotová in 2003. However, this success (the Czech team ultimately received an honorable mention, placing 4th – 10th) did not represent a fundamental breakthrough in Roubík's position on the relatively closed Czech scene, and the vast majority of his works thus remained on paper. As he himself states: “I envisioned the return as significantly easier. Regina Loukotová and I participated in many architectural competitions over two years, but we did not secure any commissions. So in 2002, we decided to try our luck again abroad...” And regarding the progress of competitions, he adds: “Society here is totally riddled with corruption. Personally, I have the impression that competitions are influenced by corruption and connections.” He critically addressed the competition for the new National Library building in Prague, in which he did not participate due to the jury's composition and its ties to the future winner.
Roubík was used to a somewhat different situation in Norway. The reputation of the architectural office Snohetta, which he co-founded and in which he served as a partner until 1999, was built on international success in a series of competitions: the third prize for the airport project in Hurum, first place in the competition for the expansion of the art museum in Lillehammer, and a key success – the surprising victory of the then practically unknown Snohetta in the major international competition for the new library in Alexandria (1989).

Although this is a posthumous retrospective, the exhibition curator, Roubík's collaborator Petr Pištěk, does not present the architect (as is often the custom) solely as a professor but in a kind of inseparable third layer that embraces the work itself and offers the viewer insight into his personality. Regarding the concept, which does not weigh heavily with the burden of the recent departure of the main protagonist, he says: “We did not want the exhibition to be a serious commemoration or to be detached from reality. Martin Roubík spoke critically during his life, and we wanted to look at him the same way.” In addition to quotes from Roubík himself, the exhibition panels also feature words from former collaborators, classmates, or both work and personal partners – opinions, often critical, that do not compel the reader to apotheosis of the creator and instead leave room for their own assessment. Roubík emerges as a creative yet often conflicting character, an eternal initiator and founder, a person who “starts many things, finishes nothing.” In addition to his own architectural works, the anteroom showcases the contemporary profiles of the aforementioned Snohetta, the Norwegian foundation ROM, which evolved from the original Gallery ROM for architecture focusing on architecture promotion, or again the Norwegian photographic studio and publishing house ARFO – it may come as no surprise that Martin Roubík was involved in the founding of all these institutions.
Nevertheless, there is still hope for the realization of one of Roubík's visions, following his experiences from his teaching at the Faculty of Architecture of the Czech Technical University in Prague (1991–1992 and 2000–2003) as well as from the realization after his attempt to influence the operations of the Faculty of Architecture in Liberec, where he was not appointed dean even after being re-elected rector: Regina Loukotová and Petr Pištěk, along with others, continue to strive for the establishment of a private university of architecture, ARCHIP.