Prague Museum Night 2024

As part of the Prague Museum Night, the MeetFactory art section will also open its doors. The MeetFactory Gallery will present the current exhibitions Boundaries of Ambiguity (MeetFactory Gallery) and The Light of One Lamp Only by the duo Alex Selmeci & Tomáš Kocka Jusko (Kostka Gallery) in guided tours, and MeetFactory residents will open their studios on the first floor. 

Guided tours will be led by curator Ján Gajdušek from 5 pm till 11 pm every hour or according to interest. Admission is free. The residency floor is open from 5 pm till 11 pm. 

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Boundaries of Ambiguity 
The collective exhibition in main gallery of MeetFactory presents ten artists whose common approach is a creative balance between free art and design. Their works grow out of applied objects, but are generally conceived as challenging experiments in form and material, pushing (and crossing) the boundaries of design objects into the realm of free art. These works are therefore more like complex sculptures that mask their original applied function with their surface as mimicry.

Artists: Julia Gryboś & Barbora Zentková, Johana Hnízdilová, Anna Jožová, Audrey Large, Judita Levitnerová, Tadeáš Podracký, David Střeleček, Roman Štětina, Tereza Vinklárková

 

The Light of One Lamp Only 
The solo exhibition at the Kostka Gallery is the thematic equivalent to the collective exhibition at the large MeetFactory gallery. The artists conceive the exhibition as a preview or a free composition of actual works and objects, without the aim of any resolution. In particular, they present new objects from the series Columns and Towers, which are related to the exterior work Cuckoo (2023), inspired by the architecture of birds, the interacting human and animal construction and its transcendence. The motif of the leeward side is important here, a kind of safe area for building, growing, anchoring, entangling or temporarily surviving. In relation to the objects, smaller series of used objects are placed in the space, co-creating the light, sound and spatial conditions of the gallery.

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Open Studios 

During the evening, the first floor, where our residents' studios are located, will be open to the public.

During her residency at MeetFactory, Adriana Bogdanova is conducting artistic research on a honey badger named Káča, who escaped from the Prague Zoo a few years ago. In her escape, Káča probably managed to overcome an electric fence and a barrier more than one and a half meters high. As part of Prague Museum Night, the artist will present an installation in her studio composed of foundry sand that responds to themes of escape and creates parallels between physical escape and the digital escape prevalent in our society, especially through social media.

In Bögdana Kosmina's studio, visitors will be able to see the exhibition "The Atlas of Traditional Ukrainian Housing from the Middle of the 19th to the Middle of the 20th Century", which maps The Atlas projectt - a project that was supposed to be jointly implemented with three academies of sciences (of the USSR) from Belarus, Moldova, and Ukraine in the 1960s. In the 1990s there was a huge effort to continue the Ukrainian section led by architect and ethnographer Tamara Kosmina and the academic team including Oksana Kosmina, architect, historical scientist, and researcher of ethnology and material culture; and Dmytro Vortman, cartographer, scientific editor of the “Encyclopedia of the History of Ukraine,” and compiler of historical, ethnographic maps. The publishing of the Atlas was finally abandoned by the Rylsky Institute of Art Studies, Folklore and Ethnology in Kyiv and the Institute of Folklore in Lviv due to its colossal scale. The Atlas consists of a series of digital maps, texts, and a visual block: architectural drawings, watercolors, and photos of the buildings’ interiors and exteriors. Each of the thematic maps and visual representations has three time gradations: the middle and end of the 19th century and the beginning and middle of the 20th century.

At MeetFactory residency Batu Bozoglu continues in his research on civilian trauma during the world wars, he is  investigating the Terezin Ghetto: a site of Nazi Genocide. Arts and crafts such as theatre, literature, games and concerts played a large role in the struggle for morale in this ghetto, thanks to the large number of artists interred here, coupled with the children present in the camp. Inspired by one of these games, he is now in the process creating a new board game that would try to emulate, and in doing so perhaps translate part of this experience in the form of a collective performance. 

Syinat Zholdosheva through her performance, seeks to encourage visitors to engage in self-exploration. She has curated a set of 61 cards (symbolizing her two-month residency at Meet Factory) to guide these conversations. These cards, akin to magical keys, contain questions designed to provoke deep introspection and open our eyes to inner truths. The performance is an outcome of Syinat's self-reflection during her residency, a period where she immersed herself in her thoughts, had profound self-dialogues, and learned to live in a state of calm and relaxation, away from everyday distractions.

During Viktoriia Tymonova's residency at MeetFactory she's worked with the theme of witchcraft. Within Prague Museum Night you can see her new works about flying ointment and try wax divination. Her studio is open from 5pm till 7 pm.

Dana Andrei will open the studio into a makeshift research laboratory, showcasing older works (including an audio poem and printed matter) alongside glimpses into her current research. Her project explores the challenges of recording, archiving, and reproducing soundscapes and immaterial memories often overlooked by historical research; by framing the study of the silk industry during the socialist era within a broader reflection of contextual analysis, it examines how material conditions have shaped the auditory experiences of particular generations.

During his residency at MeetFactory, Keyvan Paydar is expiring and connecting with Prague’s artistic community and is taking advantage of the cultural program MeetFactory has to offer, from theatre and art exhibitions to music performances. In his art practice, Keyvan uses local recycled materials.

Residents: 
Adriana Bogdanova
Batu Bozoglu 
Dana Andrei 
Chris Hunter
Bogdana Kosmina
Keyvan Paydar 
Syinat Zholdosheva 
Viktoriia Tymonova 

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Improv Session
A two-hour improvised music session initiated by resident Keyvan Paydar will take place in the foyer of MeetFactory. Participation is open to all corners of the music scene, regardless of experience or genre. Michał Łukaszuk will perform a poem he wrote in Prague during a residency at an Improv session.It starts at 9 pm. 

Line-up: 

17:00, 18:00, 19:00, 20:00, 21:00, 22:00 exhibitions guided tour
17:00–23:00 Open Studios + guided tours of the residential floor according to interest
21:00–23:00 Improv Session 

19:00 Syinat Zholdosheva - performance 
19:30  Adriana Bogdanova: Wanderlust
20:00 Oksana Kosmina: Regional features of traditional Ukrainian housing XIX-XX C - lecture