The Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic has become a critic of architecture

In the history of architecture over the past century, it has probably never happened that a state institution has stepped into the public space to criticize a specific architectural proposal. Even various totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, which preferred certain architectural directions while rejecting others, allowed associated publicists, architects, or officials from contemporary architectural associations to speak for them. The Czech Ministry of Culture, under the leadership of Antonín Staněk, shed this shyness and, in a press release dated March 20, 2019, criticized the well-known design by Jan Šépka for the Central European Forum (SEFO) in Olomouc, developed in 2009 and revised in 2014.
The criticism of Šépka's design was prompted by the course of a debate at the Veletržní Palace on March 18, 2019. Minister Staněk had previously ordered the Olomouc Museum of Art to announce an architectural competition for the SEFO building. The museum's director, Mgr. Michal Soukup, is indeed preparing this competition. However, some participants in the mentioned debate on March 18 tried to point out the problems associated with its announcement, primarily the fact that if regular rules are to be adhered to in the competition, it is very difficult to find a way for Šépka's proposal to participate regularly.
From the unusual entry of the Ministry of Culture into the area of architectural criticism, however, it can be inferred that this problem does not concern the ministry. I even dare to claim that if the ministry were to decide the results of the competition for SEFO, Šépka's project would have no hope of good placement.
In the introductory paragraphs of its critical text, the ministry argues with a “group” that defends Šépka's SEFO proposal, invoking many more people, “who do not identify with Mr. Šépka's design; they consider it insensitive, outdated, and damaging to the genius loci of the center of Olomouc, and for the destruction of its public space (an anachronism of the concrete teeth opposite the Baroque Jesuit gymnasium and the Church of the Virgin Mary of Snow).”
In other parts of the Ministry of Culture's press release from March 20, 2019, there is already seemingly contained the institution's own opinion. The ministry poses a rhetorical question, “whether Mr. Šépka's project is the pinnacle of what we can build in Olomouc”, or “whether there are architectural studios in the republic that could present a strong or even stronger architectural vision”. From the ministry's press release, the reader will learn that the ministry considers Šépka's project outdated; “the world – even in architecture – has changed in ten years”, and therefore, it will be beneficial for the design of SEFO to “give space to people who follow new contemporary proposals and styles.” According to the ministry's view, world architecture is “very quickly moving in themes and trends and is already substantially elsewhere than when the original design of 'five hollow teeth' was created.”
I personally consider this expedition of the state institution into the field of architectural criticism to be very unfortunate. I find it impossible for this institution itself to determine, in democratic political conditions, what is appropriate in architecture and what is not. In the conclusion of its press release, the Ministry of Culture labeled itself as an “impartial body”; but what does this performance indicate other than its bias? The forthcoming competition is already seriously compromised by this ministerial intervention. How will the ministry behave, for example, if a solution similar to Šépka's proposal wins, or if Jan Šépka himself succeeds in it? Will the ministry accept such a result? Will it release the promised money for SEFO?
The situation around SEFO has dramatically intensified in recent days. If the Ministry of Culture assumes the role of an architectural critic, it will hardly contribute to its calming down.