Find Two Fakes is the name of a new exhibition at the Prostora Gallery, featuring contemporary graphic designer and educator Petr Babák. The opening will take place on Wednesday, September 11, at 6:00 PM.

In 2024, Prostora Gallery continues to present collections of contemporary artists. The new exhibition, the fifth in the series, will run from Thursday, September 12, 2024, until the end of October. It will showcase works from Petr Babák's collection, representing the contemporary art scene. The exhibition will open with a vernissage on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, at 6:00 PM, featuring prominent artists. The black electro duo Body of Pain will perform at the event. The exhibition will also include guided tours.

Babák's collection includes a variety of paintings, photographs, and spatial artifacts by legendary artists such as Dalibor Chatrný, Jiří Valoch, Václav Stratil, and Stano Filko, as well as works by Ján Mančuška and photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková. The collection also features works from the middle generation, such as Václav Jirásek, Michal Cihlář, Markéta Othová, and Jiří Thýn, as well as pieces from emerging artists like Eva Maceková, Julius Reichel, Pavla Malinová, Magdaléna Rutová, and Vojtěch Veškrna. Babák also keeps an eye on the youngest generation across different professions, including illustrators, DJs, and photographers. The exhibition will feature works by Jakub Bachorík aka Don Chain aka DJ Venktovka, Eda Babák, and Viktorie Macánová.

And can you find the two fakes?
The collection is far from one-dimensional or monotonous; it spans various disciplines, including Babák's own field of graphic design, with works by Zdeněk Seydl, the art group Bratrstvo with Ivan Pinkava, Ondřej Chorý, Marek Pistora, or the team from the underground magazine Živel. The collection even includes two openly acknowledged fakes. Additionally, it features a "quirk"—a fascination with various fetishes. One of these is Ladislav Sutnar's orange bag.

Petr Babák comments: "This shopping bag, with many functional pockets in a typical orange color, was given to me by the glass artist and experimenter Václav Cigler during one of many visits to his Střešovice villa while working on his monograph. He presented it to me with the remark that, according to legend, it was Ladislav Sutnar's bag. Cigler was a student of the prominent artist and theorist Josef Kaplický in the glass studio at UMPRUM. I must admit, just the thought that the icon of my graphic adolescence, with the initials LS, used this somewhat provocative orange bag for shopping for bread rolls at a nearby shop was enough for it to become a favorite fetish in my already growing, chaotic, but passionate collection. I didn't bother to verify if it was a legend or fact, nor did I consider washing or restoring the bag. No way. Everything is original." - P.B.

Petr Babák is a renowned Czech graphic designer, university professor, and publicist. He is the founder of the graphic studio Laboratory (www.laboratory.cz), a professor at UMPRUM, and the author of the manifesto of the Graphic Design and New Media Studio, which he leads at UMPRUM. Babák has created many significant graphic outputs (https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petr_Babák). His studio has produced publications for contemporary artists such as Jiří Kovanda, Ján Mančuška, Kateřina Šedá, and Federico Díaz.

"Thanks to his profession, Petr Babák is literally surrounded by artists. His house outside Prague, which I had the chance to visit, is thoughtfully complemented by works of contemporary artists, where every piece has its place and harmonizes with the interiors," says Marcela Steinbachová, founder of Prostora Gallery.

Petr Babák enjoys combining creation processes with chance or mistakes. He also likes collaborating with the sun, allowing it to complete graphic work (e.g., offset covers of the mmcité corporate catalog). He co-authored (with Tomáš Machek) the first comprehensive city visual identity for Zlín, for which he received the National Design Award in 1995. He has created logos and visual identities for many significant institutions, including the Moravian Gallery in Brno, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, the National Film Archive, and the National Library of Technology, for which he won the Czech Grand Design Award as the Grand Designer of 2009. In 2020, UMPRUM and the Moravian Gallery in Brno published a comprehensive book (edited by Lukáš Kijonka) about Babák's studio, affectionately known as "MONSTRUM" due to its size (5.5 kg, 19 cm spine). The spines of this book were designed by contemporary artists and theorists such as Černický, Švejdík, Malinová, Kintera, Nanoru, Kvíčala, Valoušek, Pospiszyl, and Reichel. In 2024, UMPRUM also published "Petr Babák: True Texts" (1997-2023), summarizing Babák's publishing work over the past 25 years. He is the curator of the Prague Art Book Fair, organized annually by GHMP, and a member of several expert committees. Babák is an active Instagram user (https://www.instagram.com/petr_babak/), where he playfully documents his life.

Find Two Fakes, Petr Babák
Vernissage: Wednesday, September 11, 6:00 PM
Exhibition: September 12 – end of October 2024

Event on Facebook
IG: @prostora_galerie

The opening on September 11 will include a performance by the Prague minimal synth duo Body of Pain (Tereza Ovčačíková and Jan Vytiska).

Opening Hours
Wednesday–Friday: 2:00–5:30 PM
Saturday: 2:00–5:30 PM by appointment
(Closed on public holidays)
Entrance is voluntary. More info at www.prostora.org.

Organized by: Prostora, Marcela Steinbachová
Project supported by: Financial support from the City of Prague, State Cultural Fund of the Czech Republic
Media partners: Archizoom, ArtMap, Cultural Magazine Uni, Prague Moon

Media contact:
Marcela Steinbachová, +420 776 565 180, ms@skupina.org
Jan Kieweg, +420 607 708 190, architektura@kruh.info