Public House

The opening of three new exhibitions, concerts, a guided tour of the studios, theatrical collages, and performances - all in one evening under one roof at the Smíchov factory. We invite you to this year’s edition of Veřejný dům, the cross-genre culmination of a packed season at the MeetFactory International Center for Contemporary Art.

(GALLERIES)

✸ Cezary Poniatowski: Deep House ( MeetFactory Gallery)

A large-scale installation by Polish artist Cezary Poniatowski, in which the gallery is transformed into a surreally ghostly apartment abandoned by its original inhabitants. A microcosm of insects, bacteria, and viruses is quietly taking over all everyday objects. Poniatowski creates reliefs and objects from old carpets, black leatherette, and insulation foam typical of Eastern Bloc prefabricated apartment buildings, which survive in many of them to this day.

Cezary Poniatowski will open and present the exhibition together with curator Ján Gajdušek during a guided tour.

✸ Borsos Lőrinc: Specter in the Wedge (Kostka Gallery)

In a landscape of shifting freedoms, the fictional agency OKKULTEK emerges from the shadows and opens its doors to new recruits. The exhibition will present a para-ritual environment where moments of possession from the past meet the anticipation of future invocations.

At the invitation of the artist duo, a trio of young musicians from the Hungarian noise/experimental electronic music scene will perform during the evening: Afrom Aru, Panidivoka, and Ingatlan.

✸ Tomáš Mitura: Chasing Shadows (Zeď Gallery)
Unveiling of Tomáš Mitura’s large-scale mural Chasing Shadows. His painting will cover the monumental wall of a highway pillar, which creates a unique space behind the former glassworks building. Tomáš Mitura’s work straddles the boundaries of expressive painting, street art, comics, and subcultural imagery.

(THEATRE)

✸ Not Dead Yet

The theater’s artistic director - and, for this evening, also the DJ - Tomáš Soldán, together with actress Romana Widenková and actor Lukáš Černoch, will present excerpts from upcoming productions as part of the theatrical collage Not Dead Yet. Texts by Samanta Schweblin, Esther Bol, and Elfriede Jelinek will be heard not only in the theater’s darkroom but will also permeate the rest of the evening’s program.

(MUSIC)

✸ Sbor Elpida

The Elpida Choir consists of twenty-six women aged sixty to eighty. They have been performing together since 2010 and have since given concerts with Never Sol, Jaromír Švejdík, Dušan Neuwirth, Jan Burian, Bonus, and Please The Trees - the latter of which was founded by Václav Havelka. The MeetFactory music programmer will also join them during the Public House event.

✸ Pan Thorarensen
The Icelandic musician and sound artist will present his latest ambient album, Ljóstillífun (Photosynthesis), inspired by Iceland’s flora and mysterious natural landscapes. 

(A-i-R)

✸ Open Studios:

Clément Bedel
Olena Kurzel
Rita Koszorus
Ernest Borowski
Finja Sander
Katarzyna Witek
Marty Quell
Urban Space Epics