Brno - The nine largest canvases of the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha and a collection of his posters are connected by an exhibition that started today at the Brno Exhibition Centre, attended by the prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO) stated after the opening that she would likely announce a surprising solution for the permanent placement of the entire epic soon.
"We will inform about this concept next month, and I think it will be a surprise for Prague and for Mr. Prime Minister (Andrej Babiš)," Krnáčová told journalists. "Let us hope that we can present the collection one day, because it is a huge heritage of our nation," Babiš stated.
"We should soon learn good news about where there will be a beautiful, unified exhibition of all these works, because I think that this work is so monumental that it deserves such a separate space," added Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini.
Last year, there was talk of the possibility that a new exhibition hall for the epic would be at Těšnov. The council even decided to announce an architectural competition for the design of the building. In recent decades, politicians have also considered several other locations, such as Letná, Vítkov, Vyšehrad, Zbraslav, or Petřín. Relatively recently, there has also been talk of the current park at the end of Revoluční Street in Prague 1.
The Brno exhibition of Mucha's work is a paid part of the otherwise freely accessible festival Re:publika marking the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovakia and the 90 years of the exhibition grounds. A part of the epic, consisting of giant canvases with historical themes, has been lent to Brno by the City of Prague, which has not yet resolved the question of a permanent and dignified placement that Mucha desired for the epic.
The posters are from the collection of the Richard Fuxa Foundation. "Altogether, this uniquely combines two worlds of Mucha's work for the first time, and perhaps even for the last time," said one of the organizers, Jiří Smetana from Veletrhy Brno, to ČTK.
Visitors will find the exhibition in Pavilion H, a monumentally protected building that, while it has air conditioning, does not have climate control. Therefore, it was necessary to install mobile air conditioning units as well as humidifiers.
The exhibition will last until the end of the year. During the festival Re:publika, it can be viewed for a discounted admission of 150 crowns. After that, the price will rise to 250 crowns. The organizers recommend reserving dates, as the tour is purchased for a specific time and lasts 60 minutes.
So far, there is the greatest interest in weekend dates. "During the week, we expect that especially in the morning, there will be interest from schools. We are also communicating intensively with tour operators to be able to bring foreign tourists who travel to Prague and Vienna here," Smetana said.
Mucha is a native of Ivančice in the Brno region. The epic adorned the castle in nearby Moravský Krumlov from 1963 to 2011. In recent years, the canvases have been in Prague's possession. However, there is an ongoing dispute over the ownership of the epic between Prague and the painter's relative, John Mucha. The painter, along with patron Charles Crane, donated the canvases to Prague with the condition that the city would place them in a building constructed for this purpose at its own expense.
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