Prague 2050: No water, no cars and people underground? The exhibition on Charles Square warns of the climate crisis
Scientists’ predictions of an advancing climate crisis are widely known. But how will it manifest itself in the environment of the capital? Rising temperatures and ever-increasing weather fluctuations, energy supply outages, loss of safe water, uncertain supply, these are just some of its predicted impacts.
Six large-format illustrations depict specific places in Prague: Barrandovský bridge, Jiřího z Poděbrady square, Blanka tunnel mouth, suburban satellite or metro station. On them, the authors Terezie Unzeitigová and Ondřej Dušek try to imagine how life in the city can change and what problems its residents will face.
Pedestrian zone from the market square metro and the Blanka tunnel
“We’ve been picking places that we think will change how people use them or who lives there. At the same time, we wanted the changes to be clearly visible,” Terezie Unzeitigová tells Bleska. That’s why they chose a tunnel as one of the locations, which became a pedestrian zone due to the shade and accommodation of passenger traffic. Additionally, due to the unrelenting heat on the surface, many activities have moved underground. In the Smíchovské nádraží metro station, an informal marketplace was created, where it is sold and exchanged.
In the next panel, the authors depict the future of the satellite town of Jesenice, which has been completely cut off from the center by rising fuel prices, so self-sufficient adventurers are moving there. Freight bikes and freight trams once again flourished at Praha-Smíchov railway station. “Truck drivers live here in unfinished torsos of buildings overlooking luxury gated zones.” describes Teresa. The remaining two panels depict the allocation of water on the “Jiřík” and the future of the Vltava under the Barrandovský most.
Why only six places?
“We also thought about other places, we tried to draw housing estates or a covered ski slope for the rich in the places of the prosecco bobsleigh track, but we dropped them in the final selection,” explains the author. The drawings are very detailed, Terezie and Ondřej won with the characters and inscriptions on billboards and walls, because they say a lot about the city.
“The drinking water distribution panel on Náměstí Jiřího z Poděbrady shows a temperature of 39°C, which we finally changed to 49°C just before the exhibition. When we installed the exhibition, it was 36°C,” Teresia is afraid. Another favorite detail of the author is the advertisement for the air-conditioned “dating zone” in Petřín. “And the detail that worried me the most during the process is the salesman wearing a face mask at the market – this was supposed to represent the possible spread of unknown diseases. A year later, the pandemic broke out coronavirus,” he adds.
Warm and apocalyptic
It is said that Ondřej came up with the idea for the first time, already in 2019. At that time, the Czech climate movement experienced a great boom and both thought about how to best contribute to it. So they thought that it might be interesting to show the effects of the climate crisis and its manifestations in specific places. “At the same time, it was important for us to think about how generally known forecasts manifest themselves in everyday life in our city,” comments Terezie.
it is said that there are “only” six paintings accompanied by texts, but the series itself was created for almost three years. The authors collected documents and approached experts on climate and urban transport. Their inspirations could also include futuristic views of cities from the end of the 19th century, educational illustrations and specific artists.
“Of course, we don’t know if Prague will look like in our illustrations in 2050. But we think it is important to try to imagine how the climate crisis will continue to manifest itself, not to close our eyes and try to mitigate its effects where it is still possible,” concludes co-author Terezie Unzeitigová.
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Corso Blanka
Author: Terezie Unzeitigová, Ondřej Dušek