STUDIO M NEDVĚD WORKS (VIEW AS INDEX)

How did photographers reflect the year of 1989 in Czechoslovakia? This exhibition catalog commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. It also seeks to examine 1989, a turning point in many respects, from the distance of the three decades that have passed. It was critical for both Czech society at large and photography in particular. It marked 150 years since the discovery of the medium, and probably without photographers suspecting this, it was the final year they would spend working in the institutional framework they had been used to for years. The lives of many changed radically after the revolution, as they could now enjoy the freedoms, engage in business, hold exhibitions and create freely. The very medium of photography dissolved in a syncretism of new approaches and shortly afterwards also underwent a transformation of its technological foundations.

Photographer Bára Prášilová’s first book includes the artist’s photographs created during the last 15 years. The book's editor, Thomas Beachdel, characterizes her work as "images of wonder" teetering on the edge of beauty and strangeness, reality and fantasy, tenderness and violence, which are all rooted in the artist's sense of the absurd. This visual artist's imaginative photographs are created as carefully planned productions which are based on sketches and include props that she designs and often makes herself. They express her desire to bring the world of dreams and illusions into tangible reality. In her work, for which she has won numerous international awards, we can find a number of motifs that are obsessively repeated not only in her photographs, but also in her videos and objects.

In cooperation with the Czech Olympic Team we have designed the first comprehensive publication for the legend of Czechoslovak sports photography Karel Novák (*1925–†2007). From the archive of more than 200,000 photographs this book in 272 pages introduces Karel Novák as a passionate sports photographer who covered a wide range of sports. He captured eight olympics and dozens of world championships in various popular sports. Among other things, he photographed sports legends for many years like multiple Olympics champions Věra Čáslavská, Jiří Daler, Dana and Emil Zátopek, tennis legends Martina Navrátilová, Jan Kodeš...

The specific conditions existing in totalitarian Czechoslovakia gave rise to a qualitatively new middle class, one that was fundamentally different from the middle class of the First Republic, which Czechs view as a symbol of a prosperous modern democracy. The members of this new middle class did not have the same financial resources as their predecessors from the interwar period; however, a substantial number were educated and possessed a critical opinion of the social status quo, predisposing them to create various informal communities that tried to stay in contact with cultural events beyond the Iron Curtain. One such community were contemporary art collectors who, in direct contact with artists, assembled unique collections of art. Through the lens of their activities, they have written stories that remind us of just how ambivalent the world was in the second half of the twentieth century.

Exhibition graphics and visuals for the National Gallery's exhibition 1989 at the Trade Fair Palace in Prague. This exhibition was organised to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution as part of the project Havel na Hrad! (Havel to the Castle!). Architect Zbyněk Baladrán.

South Bohemian Gallery presents an exhibition of Czech art of the generation born in the years 1939–1953. This generation entered culture at the time of normalization. Art from this period was often the result of deep civilizational and cultural, social and political contradictions overlooked and banned or condemned by the official institutions of the communist regime. At the same time, the generation born in the era of Hitler‘s and Stalin‘s tyranny was facing the difficult tasks of art restitution after the collapse of humanity during the fascism, the Holocaust and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Over 100 events and works of art from more than thirty artists of Czech origin demonstrate the efforts of presented generation to restore the value of the natural world, which has become a world of absurdity. Designed in collaboration with Karel Štědrý.

On the occassion of the premiere of the documentary movie My Name Is Hungry Buffalo, this silkscreen print was released in the limited number of 30 prints. Last copies still available for purchase.

Jan calls himself Buffalo. He loves cowboys, he’s blind, and may lose his hearing. This book follows his journey to America to visit the medicine man of the Navajo tribe, who wants to perform a ritual to help his hearing. The book includes authentical drawings by the medicine man of the Navajo tribe Blackhorse + photographic series by Roman Franc from Shiprock in New Mexico. Photography © Roman Franc.

Poster design for the documentary movie My Name Is Hungry Buffalo about Jan who calls himself Buffalo. He loves cowboys, he’s blind, and may lose his hearing. This movie follows his journey to America to visit the chief of the Navajo tribe, who wants to perform a ritual to help his hearing. Photography © Roman Franc.

Metropolight is young Czech photographer David Gaberle’s debut publication. Although the book presents his first-ever comprehensive photographic series, the result feels eminently mature. The pictures were taken in hypermodern cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Sydney, London, and New York. Gaberle observes alleyways, stairwells, parks, train stations, subway cars, galleries, and bridges, slowly revealing the hidden order that exists between the world of things and the world of people. In his introduction to the book, author Petr Volf writes: “The photographs’ range of color carries symbolic meanings, and the lights of the visited cities – whether natural, direct, or artificial – become lighthouses which make us feel safe.”