Prague Will Come Alive With Art for One Week in September

From September 9 to 15, the international art festival PRAGUE ART WEEK 22 will be taking place in Prague for the first time ever.

Following the example of other large cities around the world, the festival aims to connect the Prague art scene and, through a joint initiative, make the Czech capital stand out on the world art map on the occasion of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The festival of visual art invites visitors from the Czech Republic and abroad to more than fifty galleries, museums, art collections, and other art institutions all over Prague, which will present a diverse program focused on the visual art of Central and Eastern Europe.

The opening of the festival will take place on Friday, September 9, at 5 p.m. in the piazzetta of the New Stage of the National Theatre, where the festival center, the so-called Superstudio, will be located for the entire week.

The opening will be followed by the festival weekend, during which major art institutions have prepared either free or discounted admission for festival visitors.

From Monday, September 12, to Thursday, September 15, the organizers encourage guests to visit the smaller, private galleries that are densely represented in selected city districts during the individual days of the festival.

Visitors can end their day’s itinerary in the early evening in the city center at the Superstudio, where there will be an accompanying program of lectures and debates with domestic and international guests from the art world. Invited guests include photographer Marie Tomanová, Ukrainian gallerist Maryna Shcherbenko, and renowned Czech artist Kryštof Kintera.

The opening ceremony will also include the announcement and awarding of ten artists from the Artefin Gallery’s open call for the best digital artwork (NFT), which aims to support the work of progressive artists and the creation of original digital artworks.

Large institutions will be worth a visit during the festival weekend

One big attraction of the festival weekend is the opportunity to visit Prague’s newest institution dedicated to the visual arts, Kunsthalle Praha, which on the weekend of September 10–11 will be offering visitors of PAW free admission to the exhibition Midnight of Art, which presents the private collection and extensive cultural activities of Karel Babíček. During the week of September 9–15, Kunsthalle Praha will also host an accompanying program, including an online talk with Nancy Davidson and Marisa Ravalli-Příhodová on September 14.

Similarly, the Prague City Museum, which is currently renovating its main building, will offer a free program at its Norbertov Study and Documentation Centre and will also invite visitors on a walk to see Prague’s architecture.

On Saturday at 3 p.m. the New Stage will host a free workshop with photographer David Gaberle, which will consist of a one-hour lecture followed by a photo session with Fujifilm cameras on the streets of Prague.

On Saturday, September 10, all the buildings of the Prague City Gallery (GHMP) will be open for the symbolic price of one crown. The Biennale Matter of Art, which is organized by GHMP and tranzit.cz, will be taking place during the entire week of the festival. The biennale’s free exhibitions and accompanying program address the relationships between gender, race, class, sexuality, and geopolitics in an almost therapeutic way. National Gallery Prague is offering a 50 % discount on admission to all of its venues on Sunday, September 11, and it also invites visitors to several events that accompany the exhibitions MOVE: Intimacy as Resistance, Coming Soon, and ZENGA.

Galerie Rudolfinum is organizing a free workshop for children on September 11 to accompany the exhibition Fragilités.

The DOX Centre for Contemporary Art is holding a family workshop on September 10 and a guided tour of the exhibition Power(less) on September 11, both with free admission for visitors of PAW 22.

The Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague will make its accompanying programs available free of charge, including tickets to exhibitions where the programs are held, and it also invites those interested to take a walk through Josef Sudek’s Prague.

Friday to Sunday will also be the last chance to visit MeetFactory for the exhibition Let Me Hear Your Footprints and draw inspiration from the experiential symposium Discovering Other Knowledge, both of which focus on new tendencies in art and society.

On Sunday, festivalgoers can visit a quiet courtyard in the city center at Campus Hybernská, where Barbora Valášková’s exhibition Blau will open at HYB4 Gallery D and where there will be a music lounge, street food, and an afterparty with DJs from the group Sady Kolektiv.