Ostrava will host the Landscape festival

Ostrava - Ostrava will host the Landscape festival this year, focusing on public space and landscape architecture. The festival will start at the turn of May and June and will run until mid-October. The events will include exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and debates. The most prominent activity will be the so-called site-specific installations, which temporarily enliven individual locations in the city, respond to their issues, and outline possible future uses. An international conference on landscape architecture is also planned. This was announced to reporters today by the festival director, Dan Merta.

The festival will focus on the historical center of the city and its connection with the Lower Area of Vítkovice. Ostrava, in its role as co-organizer, will support the festival with 2.5 million crowns. "Artists, architects, landscape architects must respond to the route we have chosen for this year's edition. These are installations that are either artistic, landscape, or design-oriented. They can create resting places, certain nooks that will change, and people will be able to use them in different ways," said Merta.

Some architects were approached directly by the organizers, while an open call was announced for others, intended for all creators dealing with the revitalization of public space, urbanism, architecture, landscape architecture, art and design in public space and landscape, and environmental art. Their projects will temporarily enliven specific locations in the urban areas of Moravská Ostrava, Mariánské Hory, and Vítkovice.

Some installations could remain permanently in Ostrava. According to Merta, it always depends on the approach of the cities. "In addition, various analyses of some problematic areas along the festival route are being prepared within the workshops. These should be analyzed and made available to the city, which should address these analyses and perhaps announce competitions for some locations or look for solutions," added Merta.

Ostrava took over the baton after six editions held in Prague, Plzeň, and Opava. The main theme of this year's edition is "Communication." "We consider the event to be one of the key events of this year. It will definitely be the largest professional festival focused on public space to be held this year," said Deputy Mayor Kateřina Šebestová (ANO).

The Landscape festival has been held regularly since 2014. Its attendance over the past editions has exceeded 500,000 participants from both professional and lay audiences. Up to 200,000 people could participate in Ostrava.