Fragnerova gallery exhibits contemporary sacred architecture

Prague - Until February 7, the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery in Prague presents an exhibition titled Sacred Space featuring around thirty chapels, churches, and small structures. However, it showcases not historical architecture, but buildings that are being constructed in the present day.
Much like the well-known temples from the Gothic period or Baroque churches, contemporary designs can also slow down, quiet, and calm their visitors. The creators often only require minimalist means and light. Contemporary sacred architecture is not ostentatious on the outside; the essence takes place within.
The impressive buildings are signed by renowned European architects such as Mario Botta, Peter Zumthor, Fernando Menis, and the studio Marte Marte. In the photos capturing their structures, viewers can admire simple yet striking interiors that utilize natural materials, often wood, as well as glass and concrete, allowing spaces to be shaped by light pouring in from above or through long openings in the walls.
The Czech Republic is represented by the often award-winning projects of the studios Kuba&Pilař architekti and Kamil Mrva Architects. The trio of curators Dan Merta, Filip Šenk, and Jakub Fišer selected chapels and churches built in the last quarter-century across Europe. They present them through models, photographs, and video projections.
"We wanted to offer a counterweight to the ubiquitous commercialism that blurs and trivializes the original spiritual dimension of these holidays around Christmas. We believe that through the sacred objects we selected, visitors will touch the essence of Christmas much more intensely," says Dan Merta, director of the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery. He reflects on his findings from the preparation of the exhibition that just as in past centuries, today, when buildings are constructed differently and from different materials, for a number of architects, light remains the main material in these structures.
In the exhibition Sacred Space, stars of European architecture meet authors whose names many visitors may hear for the first time. They are united by a scenographic interplay with light, usually natural, direct, or viewed through the landscape. The impact of light on the chosen material and its composition invites the user to an emotional experience of the visited space.
"The present unattainability of light is a fundamental experience of something that transcends the dimension of human existence. For this reason, the majority of the presented chapels evokes in us a tremor of infinity or dizziness from the power of space. They offer a moment of uniqueness regardless of whether the architects were innovative in the form of the building or the materials used," explains the curatorial intention of co-author Filip Šenk.