Public Space Lab - exhibition at GJF

How can we address unused spaces and buildings? This is answered by a new exhibition intervention at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery by the collective Public Space Lab. It deals with the issue of temporary use of spaces, which is reflected in the concept of the project itself: the exhibition and accompanying program will take place in both the indoor and outdoor spaces of the gallery. At the same time, it engages creative and stakeholder communities through so-called Laboratories – meetings where participants become familiar with working in public space.
The Public Space Lab exhibition, or Laboratory of Public Space, aims to highlight that temporary functions can provide new cultural, social, and economic benefits to places. The project will include eight expert performative meetings (so-called Laboratories), which will present the intersection of interdisciplinary approaches combined with unique simultaneous data processing using AI – visualization of words and terms used during the meetings. In the gallery, visitors will find objects not only in the exhibition hall, where they will see footage from public space research, AI data processing, or books on temporary use of places. The exhibition continues in the courtyard, where visitors will be able to play ping-pong on specially adapted tables.
“For the next exhibition, we have collaborated with artist and urban planner Jan Trejbal and the creative collective Public Space Lab. It is an interdisciplinary team that includes experts from the fields of urban planning, (landscape) architecture, pedagogy, and art. Together, we explore how to apply various artistic strategies to work with unused or neglected locations,” says Karolína Plášková from the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery.
The Laboratories, held on selected Thursday afternoons, are open to architects, artists, municipal officials, mayors, or owners of unused properties. In the meetings, participants will gain a theoretical foundation on temporary use and will subsequently be able to actively engage in solving local challenges – whether within a community, a plot of land, or an association. They will have the opportunity to envision different ways of utilizing public or private property that has until now lain fallow.
“In creating the concept, we were freely inspired by the text Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World from 1983 by the French sociologist and philosopher Bruno Latour. He emphasizes the importance of the laboratory as a place that constructs our reality and subsequently has the power to change the real world,” explains urban planner and artist Jan Trejbal.

Public Space Lab Exhibition
Jaroslav Fragner Gallery, Betlémské náměstí 5a, Prague 1
Exhibition: April 4, 2024 – June 9, 2024
Opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 14:00 – 19:00
Admission is voluntary

Eight Laboratories will take place on selected Thursdays at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery; free registration required. Other accompanying programs are freely accessible.

Accompanying Program:
THU 4. 4. 13:00 Municipal Laboratory of Public Space #1
THU 4. 4. 18:00 Opening
THU 18. 4. 13:00 Architectural Laboratory of Public Space #2
THU 18. 4. 18:00 Discussion on the Temporality of Artistic Interventions with Potential for Transformation of Spaces
THU 25. 4. 13:00 Non-Profit Laboratory of Public Space #3
THU 25. 4. 18:00 Lecture M-US-T – Master in Temporary Uses, Politecnico di Milano (in English)
THU 2. 5. 13:00 Architectural Laboratory of Public Space #4
THU 2. 5. 18:00 Discussion on Prague Examples of Temporary Use
SAT 4. 5. 17:00 Workshop with Viktor Fuček: Performative Exploration of Space – Explore the Architecture of the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery with Your Body, Senses, and Movement
THU 16. 5. 13:00 Municipal Laboratory of Public Space #5
THU 23. 5. 13:00 Laboratory of Public Space for Landowners and Managers #6
THU 23. 5. 18:00 Lecture by Tereza Raabová: Measurable and Non-Quantifiable Impacts of Temporary Use/Urbanism Projects
THU 30. 5. 13:00 Municipal and Architectural Laboratory of Public Space #7
THU 6. 6. 13:00 Non-Profit and Municipal Laboratory of Public Space #8
THU 6. 6. 18:00 Launch of the magazine ERA21 #141 03/2024