What signals the opening of the Kunsthalle Prague. So far, you can hear mainly big words — ČT art — Czech Television
Josef Chuchma discussed the new Kunsthalle Prague and artwashing with the curator and critic Tereza Stejskalová and the chief curator of the Kampa Museum, Jan Skřivánek, illustration photo: ČTK
If there was a more transparent business and legal environment, there would not be debates about whether the money from which the Kunsthalle Prague was founded is clean or not. This is one of the conclusions of the debate, to which Josef Chuchma invited the critic and curator Tereza Stejskalová and the chief curator of Musea Kamp Jan Skřivánek.
Kunsthalle Prague was lucky in its own way when it was put into operation. It was opened on 22/02/2022 – two days before the start of the war, which changed the European reality and practically perceived every adult citizen. The launch of the Kunsthalle Prague, this private investment for 800 million crowns, received extraordinary attention in the domestic media and culture. In addition to the fact that a representative exhibition space was created in the center of the city, the fact that the investor of Kunsthalle Prague was The Pudil Family Foundation, in other words entrepreneur Petr Pudil and his wife Pavlína, attracted attention.
He was involved in 2005 together with other investors – he participated in the purchase of the Mostecká uhelná spolácie from the Appian Group, which was incorporated into the newly formed Czech Coal group. He later increased his share in the group by buying out the shares of Antonín Koláček and Luboš Měkota. In 2010, he sold his share in the company owned by Pavel Tykač. The materials about Pudil emphasize that he was not involved in the issue of the privatization of Mostecké uhelná spoléky, ass and was not tried in any of the processes that privatize Mostecké uhelná spoléky, ass in particular.
When the Kunsthalle Prague opened on February 22, about three dozen people connected with art or gallery operations protested in front of it. They pointed to the connection of money from the entrepreneurial activity of the founder of the gallery Petr Pudil and the world of art. The protestors brought canvases on which euro banknotes were overprinted and then crushed pieces of “coal” on these canvases and ate them. They immediately framed the canvases, stained with pieces of crushed and spit coal, and said that they would offer them to Pudil for purchase for his art collection that was being built. “To us, Petr Pudil represents a capitalist entrepreneur and personifies the system behind the profound social immorality of the contemporary world. “Petr Pudil does not stand for welfare, as he claims, but on the contrary stands for the evaluation of his own property and the symbolic status that he built within sight of Prague Castle,” said one of the speakers.
Let’s add that Petr Pudil last year replied to the ČT art.cz website to questions as part of a free series of interviews with contemporary Czech art investors.
Tereza Stejskalová (* 1981) studied English-American studies and African studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, and then obtained her doctorate at the same school (2017) at the Institute of Anglophone Literature and Culture. Since 2008, she has worked as an independent curator, translator, literary and art critic. Since 2011, she has been the curator of the Prague Gallery, Etc., and at the same time the editor of the A2 magazine, and for a time also the project manager of the A2larm.cz website. In 2015, she joined the cultural organization tranzit.cz as a curator, where she has been the program director since 2019. Since 2018, he has been teaching at FAMU. In 2014, she received the Věra Jirousová Award for young critics. Together with Barbara Kleinhampl, she published a book of interviews Who is this artist? (AVU, 2015).
Jan Skrivánek (* 1977) graduated in art history and history at the Masaryk University Faculty of Arts in Brno. During them, he became the editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine ART + ANTIQUES. He remained at this post for ten years, then worked as an editor in the magazine. He was at the birth of the Artalk.cz server. It is gradually processed in the leading connoisseur’s art market and has long been dedicated to the institutional history and functioning of museum and gallery institutions. Last year, he became the chief curator of the Kampa Museum in Prague.