Off season - Brno presentation of the book about the Machnáč health resort

On Tuesday, February 6, 2018, at 6:00 PM, there will be a presentation of the book OFF SEASON in the cultural space PRAHA/4AM, Husova 18a in Brno, dedicated to the architecture of the Machnáč sanatorium in Trenčianské Teplice.
The discussion and subsequent book launch in the cultural space Praha in Brno will feature the authors Martin Zaiček, Andrea Kalinová, and Petra Hlaváčková.
The Machnáč sanatorium is one of the most valuable works built in interwar Czechoslovakia and is an important example of European functionalism. Its author is the Prague architect Jaromír Krejcar (1895–1950). The architectural solution of this unique building celebrates technological and social progress, materializing the author's vision of humanism. Machnáč first opened on June 1, 1932. In 1969, it was included in the first inventory of monuments in Czechoslovakia, and in 1996 it was declared a national cultural monument. It was closed in 2002 and has been abandoned and deteriorating since then.
The story of this significant functionalist monument has been the focus of activities by the artistic group Opustená (re)kreácia over the past six years, which created numerous site-specific installations and events as a tribute to this building. These works also form the core content and visual accompaniment to the scholarly text of the book. The publication OFF SEASON is a textual and visual reflection on the phenomenon of the icon of Czechoslovak architectural functionalism and European avant-garde, as well as an exploration of the life of its author, architect Jaromír Krejcar. The idea for the publication came from photographer Andrea Kalinová and architect Martin Zaiček in an effort to immortalize the cultural and historical value of the Machnáč sanatorium, whose fate and continued existence are currently quite unclear. In addition to them, texts were contributed to the book by Austrian architecture critic Jan Tabor, Swiss architectural historian Klaus Spechtenhauser, and his Slovak colleague Peter Szalay. The editor is Czech art and architecture critic Petra Hlaváčková, the graphic form of the book was designed by Magdaléna Scheryová, and the photographers are Peter Kuzmin, Radana Somora, and Andrea Kalinová.

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