Exhibition of Alena Šrámková in České Budějovice

Exhibition: Alena Šrámková - architecture

Date: 20.9. – 21.10. 2007

Location: House of Arts České Budějovice

Opening: Wednesday 19.9. at 18:00

Curator of the House: Michal Škoda

As part of architectural exhibitions, the House of Arts in České Budějovice has prepared a presentation of Alena Šrámková's work for the beginning of this autumn, where she presents herself to the public in a solo exhibition for the first time in nearly ten years.
Alena Šrámková studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Bratislava (1947-52), then went through several design offices and in 1991 established her own studio. In the same year, she was appointed associate professor at the CTU Faculty of Architecture in Prague, where she still teaches today.
With her distinctive work, she ranks among the absolute elite of our architectural scene and is one of the representatives of the so-called "Czech severity." This is how Rostislav Švácha characterized a group of architects who are distinguished by their affinity for minimalist tendencies and their overlaps.
Alena Šrámková's handwriting is absolutely recognizable. Through it, we encounter, more than with the minimization of form, an emphasis on the whole, formed by spatial and material elements. With her work, we always find ourselves in an architectural environment (which is not always a given here, although it is presented that way). The author speaks to us without ostentation and semantic content, offering work that has no ambitions to attract our attention yet possesses undeniable strength and uniqueness in its purity, inconspicuousness, simplicity, and quietness, fully expressing indisputable quality.
Among the many works, it is necessary to mention - the main train station hall in Prague (1977), the cultural center Lužiny (1983 in collaboration with L. Lábus), and the administrative building of ČKD in Prague Na Můstku from the early 1980s, which she created together with her husband Jan Šrámek and entered broader awareness with this realization.
Last but not least, we should also mention the tower for a researcher in Na Košíku (1994), where the author's strength especially manifested how remarkable results can be achieved through simplicity and ordinariness. This can also characterize countless competition proposals that unfortunately did not get realized, but their undeniable quality influenced the younger generation. Here we can recall, for example, the reconstruction of Myslbek in Prague (1993), the building of Prague's Hypobank (1995), or the insurance company in Brno (1996).
The highest recognition for a competition proposal was awarded to Alena Šrámková in 2003 for the design of the new building of the Faculty of Architecture at CTU in Prague, which is beginning to be realized.
The materials representing the design of this building are one of the parts of the exhibition that Alena Šrámková and her team prepared for the House of Arts in České Budějovice, thus loosely following her last exhibition activities.
This presentation can also be seen as a small contribution to this year's nomination of Alena Šrámková for the award from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic for her contribution in the field of fine arts and architecture.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the statutory city of České Budějovice.