SEFO should be built in the gap, the variant of the Hanácké barracks was rejected

Olomouc - The Museum of Art in Olomouc has definitively abandoned the plan to construct the Central European Art Exhibition SEFO in the premises of the Hanácká Barracks. The plan will therefore refocus on the gap in Denisova Street, which has been considered since the project's inception. The Museum of Art is acquiring additional land here. The final form of the upcoming Central European Forum will, however, be known only in a matter of months, said the museum's director Ondřej Zatloukal to ČTK. Last January, the government released 593 million crowns for the construction of this exceptional exhibition.

Representatives of the museum stated last autumn that there were two possibilities at play. One is the proposal by architect Jan Šépka, who already in 2009 suggested filling the gap in Denisova Street with a building of futuristic appearance, while the second option is to utilize space in the abandoned Hanácká Barracks. A decision was expected to be made in late October last year after discussions with the Ministry of Culture. "Initially, we believed it was a matter of weeks, but a number of factors came together that delayed the decision. First, we had to resolve older contractual issues, which did not go nearly as quickly as we had imagined. Additionally, negotiations for the purchase of another parcel adjacent to the current land started to take on real shape, thereby changing the spatial arrangement of the gap," Zatloukal stated.

The negotiations regarding the acquisition of land in the gap mean that the Hanácká Barracks are definitively out of the picture. The museum director confirmed this. "The Hanácká Barracks are too vast and the reconstruction costs for our purposes would exceed one billion crowns. This amount would be more than double what the government promised us for the construction of SEFO," confirmed the museum director.

However, according to Zatloukal, a decision on the final form of SEFO should be made within a few months. He indicated that state financing for this construction is not currently tied to a strict timeline. "The construction of SEFO is included in the program for the Care of National Cultural Heritage I., which is bounded by the years 2019 to 2028," added Zatloukal.

The SEFO project has been planned in Olomouc for over ten years. The new building is intended to provide exhibition spaces for artworks from across Central Europe and the facilities needed for the museum's operation. This primarily involves larger storage areas for the continually growing collections, as well as a new library and study room. The new central storage facility is expected to accommodate up to 200,000 works of art, while the museum currently owns 90,860 collection items with a market value of about two billion crowns.