6.9.2006 - 16.11.2006

Exhibition in the pavilion of the Czech and Slovak Republics

MetaCity / Czech Republic

Initially, the subject of the X. International Exhibition of Architecture was “MetaCity”. A large city, a megalopolis, in which an ever increasing number of people concentrates and architecture is not able to provide a satisfying environment everywhere, all the time and for all any more, a city rapidly changing its lifestyle as well as functions. The city is disintegrating into smaller parts that form a cluster, their mutual dependency becoming in practical life more loose and at the same time forming a kind of a continuous built-up area where traditional boundaries disappear and traditional links are changing. 

The Czech Republic, with its 10 million inhabitants, is de facto one large MetaCity, its countryside being the park among the various human settlements, one of them large, many mid-sized and an even higher number small or very small. Where one begins and the other ends does not matter anymore; the boundaries are vanishing, people’s mobility speeding up and distances becoming shorter.

The MetaCity theme relates to the entire country, not just one selected territory. We are not talking about the future here because we actually live in a MetaCity and it is necessary to start asking quickly what is the role of architecture and the architect in such a city, not just the contemporary one, who views things distinctly and is in a sense already anchored in some more or less distant past, but also the future one who still merely forms himself, is open to stimuli and to a varying degree both cooperates and competes with whoever is preparing him for the profession.

To work on such a subject, which is an exciting challenge and requires a new look at architecture, National Gallery in Prague, which has been responsible for the exhibition’s installation in the Czech and Slovak pavilion, asked to participate a somewhat different group of artists than what the tradition would be, artists who also educate future architects. Of the 14 personalities that had heeded the call, the Gallery selected for presentation the exhibition project of Ivan Kroupa. The architect and his students, his disciples, and their common view of contemporary city, a large city, a MetaCity.

For Ivan Kroupa, a city is something he has systematically been devoting himself to from various angles and on various levels. The city and its changes, conversion, increasing density as architecture goes; the city and its individual municipalities, the suburbs, the urban landscape and the city’s expansion into the surrounding countryside. It has moreover been not just a subject of his own work but also one he has continuously been focusing on with his students at the Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Architecture. 

The exhibits come above all from student projects. The themes they deal with include the most varied looks at architectural/social problems of a contemporary MetaCity called the Czech Republic: life in a secluded place, in a small town and in the capital city as well as future life in a devastated landscape that has then been gradually brought back to life, plus movement of people, be it along forest paths, on water or on a motorway. The urban environment is being cultivated and complemented with new objects it has been missing because the city’s already extensive area should not be further enlarged.

The exhibits, presented in the form of a synoptic film and individual video installations showing various works by students, also include a selection of Ivan Kroupa’s designs that were turned into actual buildings.

Radomira Sedlakova
Curator
National Gallery in Prague

Exhibitor: Ivan Kroupa Architects and Ivan Kroupa Studio (Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University)
Curator: Radomíra Sedláková, in collaboration with Pavel Piekar
Organiser: National Gallery in Prague in cooperation with Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava and the support of Culture Ministries of Czech and Slovak Republics
The exhibition was also supported by the following sponsors: office of the rector of CTU, Faculty of Architecture of CTU, Skanska a. s., ZVS holding a. s., FKK Přerov
Media partners: Hospodářské noviny