Kunsthalle Praha

Kunsthalle Praha
Kunsthalle Praha
Kunsthalle Praha in March 2026
Interactive fullscreen map
Established2022 (2022)
LocationKlárov 132/5, Prague 1, 118 00
Coordinates50°05′32″N 14°24′35″E / 50.09232°N 14.40963°E / 50.09232; 14.40963
TypeArt museum
Collections
Modern, Contemporary
DirectorIvana Goossen
Websitewww.kunsthallepraha.org

The Kunsthalle Praha is a private art museum for contemporary art that opened in February 2022. It is located in the Czech capital Prague. The museum is housed in a former cultural monument, the Zenger Transformation Station building. The director and CEO of the Kunsthalle Praha Foundation is Bulgarian Ivana Goossen.[1]

The museum is supported by the non-profit Pudil Family Foundation, which wanted to create a platform with Kunsthalle Praha to promote the understanding and appreciation of Czech and international modern and contemporary art.[2]

Name of the museum

According to the Pudil Family Foundation, a conscious decision was made to use the German-language term “Kunsthalle“ in the name of the museum, on the one hand to refer to Prague's multicultural roots as a city of three nations and two languages, and on the other hand to point to Prague's cultural significance in the 19th and first half of the 20th century; where Czechs, Germans and the Jewish community lived together.[3]

Collection mission, tasks and programme

The museum has set itself the task of contributing to a better understanding of Czech and international art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Therefore, the museum is committed to established and emerging artists from Central Europe, as well as to discovering artistic trends and periods that are underrepresented or little known in the Czech Republic.[4] The museum also serves as a platform for international artistic exchange, collaborating with nonprofit organizations in the USA and Great Britian to facilitate residencies for artists and curators.[5]

Kunsthalle Praha defines its core mission as the following:

"We connect the Czech and international art scenes, present innovative perspectives on 20th and 21st century art and culture, engaging the broadest possible audience."[6]

Kunsthalle Praha’s collection of modern and contemporary art consists of more than 2000 works, thematically focusing on the significant historical movements and tendencies of the 20th and 21st centuries in Central Europe. Described as a “living and evolving” body of work, within an international context, the museum’s holdings primarily consist of the Pudil Family Foundation collection, which has been on long-term loan to the museum. After the establishment of Kunsthalle Praha, Pavlina and Petr Pudil’s collecting strategy has shifted to a public model, focusing on acquisitions, partnerships, and long-term loans, with an emphasis on conservation, research, and presentation.[7] The institution also has acquired collections from Maria and Milan Knížák[8], which represents a major collection of works from the Fluxus movement, as well as the private collection of Eva and Petr Zeman[9].

To realise its mission, the museum has developed an international programme of temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and innovative educational activities.[3] The museum also maintains a range of public programmes for children and adults, which connect its collection to current cultural topics and technological trends. Through its funding, Kunsthalle Praha offers free educational tours to its exhibitions and interactive workshops for students at all levels. [10] In addition, the museum organises courses for the public centred around art history and theory, such as Art 101[11], given in English, and TransformArt[12], given in Czech.

Facilities

The museum has a total floor space of approximately 5700 square metres. It includes exhibition spaces for 3 galleries, venues for educational programmes and other cultural and social events. A terrace on the roof of the building is open to the public as a viewing café. Other facilities include a booklounge and a design shop. Rooms for depots are located in the basement.[3]

History of the building

The Kunsthalle is located below Prague Castle in the Malá Strana district. The building was originally constructed between 1930 and 1931 by the City of Prague Electricity Works as a transformer station.[13] Previously, there was a barrack on the site. The design by architect Vilém Kvasnička was executed in the neoclassical style,[14] which corresponds to the historical character of the area. The Transformation Station was named after the physicist and meteorologist Václav Zenger, a professor at the Czech Technical University in Prague.[15]

The building was declared a cultural monument by the Czech Ministry of Culture in April 2015.[16] The owner at the time then sold the building to a real estate company, which is a joint-stock company owned by Petr Pudil and his wife Pavlina. In 2016, the Pudil couple decided to convert the building into an art museum for their private art collection through their non-profit foundation, the Pudil Family Foundation.[17]

The conversion and extension of the building was undertaken by the Prague-based project office Schindler Seko Architekti s.r.o.. During the reconstruction, the building was completely gutted,[18] leaving only the perimeter walls of the original cultural monument.[19]

On 31 October 2022, the reconstruction won the Czech National Architecture Award 2022.[20]

Exhibitions

Year Dates Artist, collection or project Curator, curatorial team Exhibition
2022 22 February – 29 August — Peter Weibel, Christelle Havranek Kinetismus. 100 Years of Electricity in Art[21]
2022 22 February – 30 May — Vendula Hnídková The Zenger Transformer Station: Electricity in the City, Electricity in Architecture[22]
2022 1 July –

30 September

 Karel Babíček’s Collection Lenka Lindaurová, Christelle Havranek Midnight of Art. Ways of Collecting[23]
2022–2023 29 September – 13 February Gregor Hildebrandt Christelle Havranek A Blink of an Eye and the Years are Behind Us[24]
2022–2023 13 October –

8 January

 Filip Hodas, Martin Houra, Johana Kroft, Jana Stýblová, Jakub Špaček, Ondřej Zunka & Zünc Studio Iva Polanecká (Kunsthalle Praha), Daniel Burda, Mario Kunovský and Martin Pošta (Signal Festival) Invisible Forces[25]
2022–2023 18 December – 14 February Jiří David – The Blue Heart[26]
2023 9 February –

1 May

 Markéta Magidová Andra Silapēter My Sweet Inedible Planet[27]
2023–2024 23 March –

16 October

 — Russell Ferguson BOHEMIA: History of an Idea, 1950–2000[28]
2023 9 June –

10 September

 Ovidiu Șandor Collection Tevž Logar LOST IN THE MOMENT THAT FOLLOWS[29]
2023–2024 12 October –

19 January

 Lunchmeat Studio Iva Polanecká (Kunsthalle Praha, Aw! Lab) The Grief of Misfit Cathedrals[30]
2023–2024 16 November – 22 April Elmgreen & Dragset Christelle Havranek, Barbora Ropková READ[31]
2024 1 March –

3 June

 John Sanborn Barbora Ropková Notes on Us[32]
2024 30 May –

28 October

 Lucia Moholy Meghan Forbes, Jan Tichy , and Jordan Troeller Exposures[33]
2024 28 June –

13 September

 Ester Geislerová Christelle Havranek, Denisa Václavová What We Should’ve Said but Didn’t[34]
2024 4 September – 25 November Jon Rafman Martina Freitag Nine Eyes of Google Street View[35]
2024–2025 10 October –

13 January

 United Visual Artists Iva Polanecká (Kunsthalle Praha), Pavel Mrkus and Martin Pošta (Signal Festival) Strange Attractions[36]
2024–2025 28 November – 28 April Chiharu Shiota Christelle Havranek The Unsettled Soul[37]
2025 7 February –

10 March

 SHOTBY.US Iva Polanecká Space of Desire (Czech Grand Design 2024)[38]
2025 25 April –

31 August

 Kristyna and Marek Milde Theo Carnegy-Tan, Kristyna and Marek Milde Call of the Forest[39]
2025 5 June –

13 October

 Anna-Eva Bergman & Hans Hartung Theo Carnegy-Tan (Kunsthalle Praha), Pierre Wat (Fondation Hartung-Bergman) And We'll Never Be Parted[40]
2025 1 September – 11 October Fluxus Barbora Ropková, Štefan Tóth Delivered by Post[41]
2025–2026 10 October –

19 January

 Alice Bucknell Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás Persistent Worlds[42]
2025–2026 13 November – 9 March Roman Ondak Barbora Ropková The Day After Yesterday[43]
2026 13 February – 11 May sikau/pubalova Iva Polanecká ALL THINGS DIGESTING[44]
2026 16 April –

7 September

 William Kentridge Christelle Havranek The Battle Between YES and NO[45]
2026 19 June –

8 October

 Kunsthalle Praha Collection Tevž Logar Memory of Touch: Chapter I[46]

Long-term installations

Year Artist Work Curator Location
2022 Mark Dion Cabinet of Electrical Curiosities[47] Christelle Havranek Third floor, near the café
2023 schwestern (Iveta Šalamounová & Monika Cihlářová) Watchtower[48] Martina Freitag Tower, the highest point of the building
2026 Lexová&Smetana Pin[49] Martina Freitag Building exterior

References

  1. ↑ "CEO Kunsthalle Praha je Ivana Goossen". The Pudil Family Foundation. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  2. ↑ "Introduction". The Pudil Family Foundation. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  3. 1 2 3 "About us". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  4. ↑ "Kunsthalle Praha". The Pudil Family Foundation. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  5. ↑ "Artist Residencies". kunsthallepraha.org.
  6. ↑ "About us". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  7. ↑ "The Story of the Kunsthalle Praha Art Collection". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "Kunsthalle Praha získala od Knížákových sbírku umělců z hnutí Fluxus". Aktuálně.cz (in Czech). 2021-06-22. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  9. ↑ "Kunsthalle Praha bude spravovat léta budovanou sbírku Zemanových". archiweb.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  10. ↑ "SCHOOLS IN THE GALLERY". kunsthallepraha.org. Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  11. ↑ "ART 101 LECTURES ARCHIVE". kunsthallepraha.org. Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  12. ↑ "TransformArt Archive". kunsthallepraha.org (in Czech). Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  13. ↑ "Kunsthalle Praha eröffnet: Die unsichtbare Kraft, die alles bewegt". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  14. ↑ "Kunsthalle Praha". designmag.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  15. ↑ Hana Hlušičková: . Prague 2001, p. 211 (in Czech)
  16. ↑ "Zengerova transformační stanice - Památkový Katalog". pamatkovykatalog.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  17. ↑ televize, Nová média České. "Současní čeští galeristé a investoři do umění: Petr Pudil, Kunsthalle Praha". ČT art (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  18. ↑ Bachtík, Jakub. "Památkové století" (PDF) (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  19. ↑ "KUNSTHALLE PRAHA". SCHINDLER SEKO ARCHITEKTI s.r.o. (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  20. ↑ "Úvodní stránka". Grandprix Architektů (in Czech). Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  21. ↑ "KINETISMUS: 100 Years of Electricity in Art". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  22. ↑ "The Zenger Transformer Station: Electricity in the City, Electricity in Arc". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  23. ↑ "MIDNIGHT OF ART. Ways of Collecting: Karel Babíček's Collection". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  24. ↑ "Gregor Hildebrandt: A Blink of an Eye and the Years are Behind Us". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  25. ↑ "Invisible Forces". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  26. ↑ "Jiří David: The Blue Heart". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  27. ↑ "Markéta Magidová: My Sweet Inedible Planet". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  28. ↑ "BOHEMIA: History of an Idea, 1950–2000". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  29. ↑ "LOST IN THE MOMENT THAT FOLLOWS. The Ovidiu Șandor Collection". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  30. ↑ "Lunchmeat Studio: The Grief of Misfit Cathedrals". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  31. ↑ "Elmgreen & Dragset: READ". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  32. ↑ "John Sanborn: Notes on Us". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  33. ↑ "Lucia Moholy: Exposures". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  34. ↑ "Ester Geislerová: What We Should've Said but Didn't". Kunsthalle Praha. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  35. ↑ "Jon Rafman: Nine Eyes of Google Street View". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  36. ↑ "United Visual Artists: Strange Attractions". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 5 October 2024.
  37. ↑ "Chiharu Shiota: The Unsettled Soul". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
  38. ↑ "SHOTBY.US: Space of Desire (Czech Grand Design 2024)". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
  39. ↑ "Kristyna and Marek Milde: The Call of the Forest". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 15 April 2025.
  40. ↑ "Anna-Eva Bergman & Hans Hartung: And We'll Never Be Parted". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 5 June 2025.
  41. ↑ "Fluxus: Delivered by Post". kunsthallepraha.org.
  42. ↑ "Alice Bucknell: Persistent Worlds". kunsthallepraha.org.
  43. ↑ "Roman Ondak: The Day After Yesterday". kunsthallepraha.org.
  44. ↑ "sikau/pubalova: ALL THINGS DIGESTING". kunsthallepraha.org.
  45. ↑ "The Battle Between YES and NO". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
  46. ↑ "Memory of Touch: Chapter I". kunsthallepraha.org.
  47. ↑ "Mark Dion: Cabinet of Electrical Curiosities". kunsthallepraha.org. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  48. ↑ "Kunsthalle, Lookout tower – Rozhledna". Schwestern.cz (in Czech). Schwestern. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  49. ↑ "Pin". lexovasmetana.cz (in Czech). lexovasmetana. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
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