Baťa's Zlín will be presented at the exhibition in Munich

Berlin/Munich - The architecture and unique urban concept of Baťa's Zlín are the topics of an exhibition that opens today at the Pinakothek of Modern Art in the Bavarian metropolis of Munich. The exhibition in the prestigious space will last until February 21 of next year.
    The exhibition titled "Zlín - A Model City of Modernity" is part of the Zipp cycle - Czech-German cultural projects. Individual theatrical performances, symposiums, and exhibitions in this series have taken place since last year in the Czech Republic and Germany.
    A similar version of the current Munich exhibition was already seen this year at the National Gallery in Prague. The Czech capital and former shoe city also hosted an international symposium in May dedicated to the history, present, and future development of Zlín.
    In Munich, a discussion on the Zlín phenomenon will take place on Thursday with both German and Czech experts, such as the director of the Munich University of Technology's Museum of Architecture Winfried Nerdinger, or the renowned functionalism expert Vladimír Šlapeta from the Brno University of Technology.
    The architectural and urban development of modern Zlín before World War II, associated with the names of František Gahura, Vladimír Karfík, or Jan Kotěra, is still a subject of admiration from experts around the world.
    In Munich, visitors will be introduced to the architectural development of Zlín through models, plans, photographs, and films. Allegedly for the first time, proposals from the French architect Le Corbusier for the Baťa company will be presented together.
    Half-brothers Tomáš and Jan Antonín Baťa, who turned the family shoe business into a global corporation, also transformed the originally small Moravian town into a vibrant industrial center characterized by modern architecture, a large amount of green space, and a well-thought-out system of civic amenities.
    Zlín expanded with new residential neighborhoods featuring houses for working-class families, as well as educational and healthcare complexes. A huge department store and the largest cinema in Czechoslovakia were built in the city center.
    Some architectural elements have been transferred from Zlín to other cities where the Baťa company operated - from the Swiss Möhlin to the French Hellocourt to the Indian Batanagar.
    The Munich Pinakothek of Modern Art opened in 2002 and became part of a unique museum complex that includes the famous collections of the Old Pinakothek and the New Pinakothek.
    In the spaces of the Czech Center in Munich, a vernissage will take place on Thursday evening for a supporting exhibition of photographs by Libor Stavjaník, who captured the transformations of the Baťa brick houses and the changes in the lifestyle of their inhabitants.