CONSTRUCTION APPROVED: Artistic Interventions

Abandonment. Response. Process. Emphasis. Underlining. Framing. Intervention. Entry into a space of change. A series of artistic interventions in Prager’s Cubes hinted at the near future of this place.

Fifteen creative figures gradually transformed the space and explored its potential. The artists approached the building as a work of art. They made structures visible, rewrote what was already legible, disrupted the composition and uncovered layers. At the centre were physical labour, contact with material, the gathering of personal stories, process-based drawing and the tension between inner and outer configurations. Alongside this were the deconstruction of the interior and the thematisation of emptiness.

Images emerging and fading on the former projection screen recalled the encroaching layers of urban wilderness, the constant covering of the old by the new. The message on the façade spoke of fragility—that of buildings and people alike. It was a parallel record of the city. The gradual dismantling of the interior enabled daily transformation, emphasising the disappearance of things, activities and the life that had once played out here. By making the building’s structural logic visible, the intervention offered a kind of guide, or internal plan. A trace of memory could also be found in the cracks, in the weeds crouching by the entrance, or in a stain left by water seeping away. A critical perspective was brought by projects that drew attention to the invisible labour of those who had cared for this place.

Other installations in the exhibition highlighted the lengthy approval process for building permits. The inadvertent humour of abandoned and powerless working tools, or a sculpture of a church turned upside down, played with the theme of unauthorised structures and the empty places we so urgently need in public space. Exploring the moment just before closure, a pause in time, allowed visitors to become involved and to experience something different. It seemed that, just for a moment before reconstruction, the building was alone... And you had the chance to try being there with it.

CAMP was gradually transformed by: David Böhm, Epos 257, Jan Fabián, Jiří Franta, Krištof Kintera, Benedikt Markel, Maxmilián Aaron Mootz, Tomáš Moravec, Tomáš Staněk, Tomáš Svoboda, Agáta Tichá, TIMO, Lenka Tyrpeklová, Erika Velická and Vladimir 518.