Dušan Jurkovič Cabinet

In the year of the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect Dušan Jurkovič (1868-1947), the Museum of South-East Moravia in Zlín, together with the town of Brezová pod Bradlom, joined forces within the cross-border cooperation program INTERREG in the project Dušan S. Jurkovič – Our Architect. Part of the project included, among other things, the creation of a new exhibition Dušan Jurkovič Cabinet in the Luhačovice Museum, a new website, and a Commemorative Book. The Cabinet presents Jurkovič's architectural work, as well as his lesser-known ethnographic and documentary works on the Moravian-Slovak border. Photographs of Jurkovič's buildings, unrealized plans, furniture designs, ethnographic documentation, and other fields of the artist's work are made accessible to the public with the help of digital technologies and documentary films. Another element of the cabinet is a small library with specialized literature and an archive of documents. A chamber panel exhibition summarizes the circumstances of Jurkovič's activity in Luhačovice at the beginning of the 20th century, when the spa became a sought-after healing, as well as cultural and social center. A significant share in this was the modernization of the spa complex by architect Dušan Jurkovič. The architect's buildings in Luhačovice, sensitively incorporated into the natural environment, created a unique spa complex with an unrepeatable atmosphere.

To approximate Jurkovič's urbanistic ideas, the museum proceeded to create a virtual tour that plastically models Jurkovič's regulatory plan for the Luhačovice spa from 1903. The initial documents are historical maps, Jurkovič's designs, drawing studies, and architectural models. Digital visualization allows for a detailed plastic view of Jurkovič's original urbanistic concept of the spa complex and models the architect's ideas about the appearance of the Luhačovice spa.

The virtual tour mediates the designs and visions of architect Dušan Jurkovič with the help of a computer screen and also through the use of a smartphone. Thanks to the connection of a phone and special 3D glasses (a panoboard is available in the museum for schools and larger groups), every visitor can wander through the virtual world of Jurkovič's designs at their own pace and direction.

Part of the cabinet's equipment is new furniture, serving to store and display artifacts associated with the architect's personality. It is complemented by replicas of seating furniture, which were created as a result of a year-long collaboration between the museum and students of the Secondary Vocational School Luhačovice, specializing in Design and Artistic Woodworking. Peasant-type chairs with carved backrests were made of larch wood according to originals designed by architect Dušan Jurkovič for the purpose of furnishing the interiors of the Luhačovice spa. The green-stained wooden armchair with a rectangular construction is complemented by upholstery and is a copy of an armchair deposited in the Museum of Art in Olomouc, originating from Luhačovice. Replicas of stools are based on the furnishing of the girls' boarding house Vesna in Brno according to designs. The stools made of green-stained wood have a square seat and a massive carved fan-shaped backrest.

The Dušan S. Jurkovič Cabinet was presented to the public for the first time on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Czechoslovak state on October 28, 2018. Its offerings will continue to be expanded and supplemented to become a true research center, making materials on the architect's activity in South-East Moravia accessible to all interested parties. The museum cordially invites you to visit. The work of the famous architect in Luhačovice is also brought closer by an accompanying program for schools, which the museum has on permanent offer.

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