<Museum of Art in Olomouc presents the association of architects SIAL>

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication of the same name.

Olomouc - The work of the Sial studio - the Association of Architects and Engineers from Liberec and its significance for domestic architecture in the 20th century will be highlighted in an exhibition at the Museum of Art in Olomouc. The opening will take place on Thursday, accompanied by a representative publication, museum spokesperson Petr Bielesz informed CTK today.
    Members of the studio are behind buildings such as the transmitter on Ještěd, the Máj department store in Prague, and the Ještěd department store in Liberec. The exhibition presents the activities of the association comprehensively. "From the perspective of the installation, we can talk about a multimedia presentation. Visitors will see 40 original plans and 20 period and new models of buildings. A total of 25 key projects are documented on 33 large-format banners," said the exhibition curator Jakub Potůček.
    According to him, the birth of Sial is closely linked to the social climate of the 1950s and 1960s. Architects had to shut down private studios after 1948 and accept jobs in state design institutes. "In the Liberec Stavoprojekt, a group of architects and designers passionate about their work formed. They took advantage of the liberal conditions before the Soviet invasion in August 1968, left Stavoprojekt, and existed under the name Sial - Association of Architects and Engineers from Liberec from 1968 to 1971," Potůček described the origins. The leading figures of the association, which sought architectural solutions through technical innovations, were architects Karel Hubáček and Miroslav Masák and statics Zdeněk Patrman and Václav Voda.
    From Sial's inventive environment also emerged a key piece of Czech architecture from the second half of the 20th century - the television transmitter with a hotel on Ještěd, which received the prestigious Perret Award from the International Union of Architects.
    The building attracted attention among young architects in the country. This led in 1969 to the establishment of the Sial Nursery. "The purpose of this unusually organized studio, led by Miroslav Masák, was to seek suitable tasks for young talents that would refine their professionalism," added Potůček. Sial had up to 60 members in the 1960s to 1980s, and among them were significant architects such as Mirko Baum, John Eisler, Martin Rajniš, Emil Přikryl, Zdeněk Zavřel, Helena Jiskrová, and Václav Králíček.
    However, the promising development of Sial's activities was disrupted by the onset of normalization. The political regime forced its members back to Stavoprojekt and prohibited its publicity in the domestic press. However, Liberec architects successfully participated in major architectural competitions abroad from 1980.
    The exhibition will be repeated at the Regional Gallery in Liberec, the Jaroslav Frágner Gallery in Prague, and the West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen. In Olomouc, it will run until September 19.