People in Olomouc already know the shape of the Central European Forum

Olomouc - The reconstructed building of the Museum of Arts and five new buildings in the adjacent gap - this is how the Central European Forum in Olomouc should look in 2014. Interested parties can now familiarize themselves with its design at the exhibition in the Museum of Arts, which presents the architectural study of the future institution created by a team of architects led by Michal Sborwitz. The exhibition will also offer a virtual tour of the planned cultural venue, director of the Museum of Arts Pavel Zatloukal told reporters today.
    "I was very surprised and initially shocked by what the architects prepared. The proposal quickly grew on me, I believe it is a world-class design," evaluated the study Zatloukal.
    The project amounts to an investment of 500 million crowns from European sources. The Central European Forum will focus on collection-building, exhibition, and publication activities focusing on the diverse manifestations of visual culture in the Central European region, especially from the perspective of modern and contemporary art.
    According to Zatloukal, the basic motif of the study is polarity. "The architects managed to reference the polarity of two Olomouc worlds. The forecourt, characterized by the palace of our museum, and the five new buildings. They are conceived in clean, basic geometric shapes, creating a contrast to the surrounding buildings," said Zatloukal. He recalled that five town houses existed in today's gap before they were demolished in 1969.
    However, the ambitious project has been accompanied from the beginning by a number of complications. In addition to property rights issues during land acquisition for the new building, there was also the rejection of the architectural competition by the Czech Chamber of Architects. Therefore, the museum commissioned the preparation of the architectural study as a smaller-scale project and turned to architects Michal Sborwitz and Jan Šépka, with whom it had many past experiences from the reconstruction of the Museum of Modern Art and the Archdiocesan Museum.
    The exhibition can be visited by interested parties until October 18. The museum will also inform the public about the current status of the project on the site www.olmuart.cz, where a separate section for the SEFO will be created in both Czech and then also in English.
    In the fall, the museum will announce a competition for the author of all subsequent design phases and prepare to submit a grant application. An archaeological survey of the construction site will also begin. If the museum is successful with the grant application, construction and reconstruction should start in 2012.
    The institution aims to systematically capture the visual culture of the Central European region after World War II. The forum will include a new central depository for artwork, an international research and training center including a large library, a newly transformed Music Theatre, and the former Central cinema for about 200 spectators, as well as a café, restaurant, and bookstore.