Fine Arts Will Enliven Chateau Prčice in June

Prčice Art Symposium P.S. 0

This summer Chateau Prčice will host for the first time the Prčice Art Symposium P.S. 0. The Chateau’s former Director’s office building will now transform into studios for five renowned painters who will spend a week there creating several new artworks. Then, for a month starting Sunday, June 26th, the Chateau’s stables will open as a public gallery for the newly created works, while the main building of the castle will exhibit other works from the artists’ studios. The Prčice Art Symposium P. S. 0 is organized under the auspices and with the financial support of The Pudil Family Foundation.

Photographs from the Symposium can be found on our Facebook page.

Participating artists

Václav Bláha (1949), member of the art group 12/15 – Pozdě, ale přece (12/15 Better late than never)

Stanislav Diviš (1953), founding member of the art group Tvrdohlaví (The Stubborn)

Jan Pištěk (1961), member of the New Association of Prague Artists 

Aldin Popaja (1971), member of the art group Clan

Oldřich Tichý (1959), member of the art group Most (Bridge) and the Mánes Association of Fine Arts

Curator

Richard Drury (1967), head of the art department at GASK (Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region)

P.S. 0: The Program 

Symposium dates

 
June 20 - 26, 2016

Discussion
Open studios

June 22, 2016 from 5 pm

Exhibition opening
Program for children
Concert of the band Krásné nové stroje

June 26, 2016 from 3 pm
Exhibition dates June 28 - July 7, 2016
daily except for Mondays
12 am - 18 pm

 

Vision

The P.S. symposium aspires to become an annual platform for intergenerational and interdisciplinary meeting of artists. It aims to bring contemporary art closer to a wide range of audiences, including those who have not yet discovered it. This encounter of exceptional artists, a respected curator, and a wide range of creative approaches will undoubtedly enrich all participants, including the visitors. In the future, the symposium programme will expand to include other related forms of artistic expression, such as theatre. 

Venue:  

Chateau Prčice (Zámek Prčice), 
K. Burky 1                 
Město Sedlec – Prčice                        
www.zamekprcice.cz                       
Free entry.

Production:

Karina Kubišová
 +420 603 840 784
 k.kubisova@quick.cz

Chateau Prčice, photo: Magdalena Bláhová
Chateau Prčice, photo: Magdalena Bláhová

History and name

During the pre-war years 1926–1937 under the influence of Ing. Jaroslav Hásek, general manager of Škoda Works in Pilsen, the Prčice Chateauserved as a regular meeting point for a highly intellectual society, including philosopher Jan Patočka, sculptor František Bílek, painter Alois Bílek or politician Karel Kramář. Recently, a new generation of artists has taken up this noble tradition, and they meet at the castle every year to discuss art. This activity gave rise to the idea of establishing a new tradition in the form of an annual art symposium building onto the cultural history of the place. 

Partners 

The Pudil Family Foundation
Chateau Prčice

The Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region GASK
Sedlec - Prčice Town

Hásek, spol. s.r.o.
Farma Prčice, spol. s.r.o.

Rodinné vinařství Mikulov
Víno Marcinčák

Participating artists

Václav Bláha

Václav Bláha (*1949) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1974 where he studied under prof. Arnošt Padrlík at the Studio of Monumental Painting. From the very beginning, his work was dedicated mainly to figure painting. Blaha is one of the founding members of the art group 12/15 Pozdě, ale přece (12/15 Better late than never) and was a member of the Mánes Association of Fine Arts until 2013. He focuses mainly on painting and large-scale installations. Blaha’s painting technique is based on gesture, structure and colour. He adjusts his artistic style of expression to the subject of the painting. His work is created in series such as Records, Messages, Stories, etc. In his paintings he assigns great importance to the work’s energy and message. Using both traditional and non-traditional materials such as ash, he layers over multiple levels of meaning and, with sarcastic exaggeration, reflects on the passing of time and the multilayeredness of space. 

Stanislav Diviš

Stanislav Diviš (*1953) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague from 1982 to 1985, where he also held a teaching position from 1994 to 1996. From 2003 to 2010 he led the Studio of painting at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. After his habilitation in 2008 he was appointed as Docent. From 1984 to 1987 he was one of the organizers of the legendary unofficial exhibition series Confrontation and other exhibition projects such as Thirty, presenting works of mid- and new generation artists at the People’s House in Vysočany. In 1987 he became the founding member of the art art group Tvrdohlaví (The Stubborn). The focal point of Divis’s oeuvre is painting and he is the author of the art movements Scientific Realism and Dyslectic Realism. Since 2010 he is a member of the art group Clan. Apart from the fine arts Divis is dedicated to music. In 1982 he founded the music band Beautiful New Machines which still performs at present. He was also active in the bands Balek Band and Manufacturing Beauty

Jan Pištěk

Jan Pištěk (*1961) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he also worked as an assistant professor at the studio of Prof. Bedřich Dlouhý between 1990 and 1995. Since the late 80’s his work developed programmatically in premeditated cycles and went through several stages: from the characteristic representation of archetypal symbols, weather forecast signs and new geometry, to the subject of landscape as the fundamental departure point for perceiving the world; from his "Japanese gardens" relating to East Asian aesthetics, to virtual worlds and the endless space of the universe. Pištěk set himself the goal of bridging the contradiction between the real world and abstraction already as a young artist. Connecting these polarities continues to be relevant in his work today. In his most recent series of paintings, Pištěk works consistently with the visual effect of colour surfaces and the inner mystery of the observed. The associative quality of creative expression is now in central to his work and intentionally extends from one work to another. In addition to free creative activity, he is involved in work for theatre and film production.

Aldin Popaja

Aldin Popaja (*1971) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo in 1995. Following his relocation to the Czech Republic, he continued his studies at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (1995-2000). A native of Bosnia, he was a direct witness to war and his work was profoundly affected by the tragic events. Initially, Popaja’s work represented photorealistic painting reflecting wartime experiences. His current work has departed from these purely realistic tendencies and reached almost pure abstraction derived from real-world motifs, again with a reference to his historical and cultural identity. Popaja draws inspiration from the symbols found on the medieval tombstones characteristic of the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. Popaja’s involvement in teaching is also significant and continues into the present. Amongst others, he has worked as an assistant professor at the Academy of Arts in the Studio of Painting of Pavel Nešleha and in the Studio of Stanislav Diviš.

Oldřich Tichý

Oldřich Tichý (*1959) A native of Zlín, Oldřich Tichý graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1986. This distinctive painter significantly shapes the profile of the contemporary Czech art scene. The path to his unique style of artistic expression is, in a way, a way back. Back to school, back to the initial experiences, back to the first sights. Observing Oldřich Tichý’s work, one comes to the acute realization that it is not about mere depiction of objects. Instead, using the language of the most ordinary, even renounced things, it is about pointing to the fact that the world is a bearer of secrets; or rather that the world and life are carried by secrets. Tichý’s paintings emerge from the continuous exploration of things and the space of our stay in the world; they speak about the need to find a place-home and make for exciting encounters with the beauty and power of painting.


The Pudil Family Foundation is an open non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of Czech and international modern and contemporary art through the realization of innovative exhibitions, research and educational projects. 

For more information regarding the Foundation and our projects, visit www.pudilfamilyfoundation.org.