The "Something Different" Exhibition at the Prostora Gallery presents visual artist Jiří Kovanda as a collector. The opening will take place on Tuesday, February 4th.

From February to 4. 4., the Prostora Gallery will present an exhibition of Jiří Kovanda's collection titled "Something Different," named after a work by Jiří Valoch. The new exhibition will showcase works from both domestic and international scenes, featuring established artists as well as newcomers, and will be inaugurated with an opening on Tuesday, February 4th at 6:00 PM in the presence of the artist. Guided tours will take place throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Jiří Kovanda's collection stems from friendly relationships and informal exchanges between colleagues and close artists. It includes works from both significant and renowned creators, as well as lesser-known authors, and young emerging artists from both the domestic scene and abroad. Kovanda's minimalist and occasional collection is characterized by its inconsistency and lack of chronological or logical continuity, containing objects of diverse nature. It is intentionally non-uniform, oscillating on the edge between high art and everyday objects, from valuable artifacts to seemingly insignificant items. Thanks to social connections and acquaintances, a unique whole has emerged, where the known is combined with the unknown and the valuable with the less precious.

The exhibition will feature artists such as: Silvina Arismendi, Josef Bolf, Sylvie Brodi, Jiří David, Žofie Eder, Laura Fiľáková, Pavla Gajdošíková, Fernanda Gomes, Václav Girsa, Lumír Hladík, Veronika Holcová, Barbora Jandáková, Ivan Kafka, Stanislava Karbušická, Ester Knapová, Eva Koťátková, Eliška Kovandová, Petr Kožíšek, Denisa Lehocká, Ivana Lovětínská, Karel Miler, Jan Mlčoch, Stanislav Oborský, Jan Pfeiffer, Ivan Pinkava, Viktor Pivovarov, Adéla Ráliš, Luděk Rathouský, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Vladimír Skrepl, Nedko Solakov, Antonín Střížek, Jindřich Štreit, Miroslav Tichý, Jiří Valoch, Karolína Voleská, Jan Wilda.

Jiří Kovanda (1953) is a prominent Czech conceptual artist, performer, and educator. His work is represented at prestigious world art exhibitions, having been presented at London's Tate Modern (performance "Kissing Through Glass") and at Documenta 12 in Kassel. He gained international fame especially for his actions and interventions from the 1970s and 1980s, which have become an indispensable part of major exhibitions and publications mapping and integrating art from the former Eastern Bloc into European and global contexts, including East Art Map, Body and the East, and Parallel Actions. As an educator, Jiří Kovanda has been working at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague since 1995 (assistant in Vladimír Skrepl's painting studio, assistant in Tomáš Vaněk's Intermedia 3 studio, and since 2022 in the Art in Context studio). For many years, he has been leading the Object-Space-Action studio at the Faculty of Art and Design in Ústí nad Labem. Kovanda's early actions and installations were initially received as political art (like everything that stood out from the "normal" in the normalization environment), but currently, the view of them has been corrected and shifted closer to the realm of individual and social experience and minimalist gesture. The central motif of his actions or visual arts is creating relationships and subtle changes in the appearance of ordinary things and phenomena. Stylistically, the author's work can be described as action-based and conceptual, with overlaps into installations and interventions.

Prostora is a gallery in the center of Vinohrady, behind which stands architect Marcela Steinbachová, founder of the Skupina studio, the Kruh association, and director of its activities (lecture series on architecture, Architecture Day festival and Film and Architecture festival, publication of publications). Prostora has been located since June 2023 in former telephone exchanges at Blanická 9 above Náměstí Míru, on the 1st floor, and is already presenting the 6th collection of visual artists. The gallery's name comes from a synonym for the more commonly used word "prostor" (space), but "prostora" defines a more defined, bounded environment, in this case, an exhibition space. In the past and current year, Prostora focuses on presenting collections of contemporary visual artists.

Something Different – Jiří Kovanda
Opening on Tuesday, February 4th from 6 PM
The exhibition will run from February 5th to April 4th

Graphic design: Petr Babák, Martin Ponec (Laboratoř)

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Opening hours
Wednesday–Friday: 2:00 PM–5:30 PM
Saturday by appointment: 2:00 PM–5:30 PM
or upon request (closed on public holidays)

Organized by: Prostora, Marcela Steinbachová
Project supported by: State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic
Media partners: Czech Radio Vltava, Archizoom, ArtMap, Kulturní magazín Uni, Prague Moon

Media contact:
Marcela Steinbachová, 776 565 180, ms@skupina.org
Jan Kieweg, 607 708 190, architektura@kruh.info