Šumperák - invitation to the vernissage at VI PER

On Tuesday, February 7, 2017, at 7:00 PM, the VI PER Gallery in Prague will host the opening of the exhibition Šumperák, dedicated to this well-known family house.

In autumn 2016, exactly fifty years have passed since the first family house of the "V" type was completed in a village near Šumperk. It was designed by architect Josef Vaněk. Under the generally used name şumperák, it became a phenomenon, undoubtedly the most widespread type of house, which soon flooded Czechoslovakia and can even be seen in the Polish and German border areas. The success of the house should be seen in the contemporary demand for individual housing and its relatively easy and inexpensive realizability through self-help using readily available materials.

The exhibition, which builds on last year's book by Tomáš Pospěch and Martina Mertová, should be understood as an extension of this publication. The exhibition elaborates on the potential interpretive layers of the şumperák phenomenon through several visual works. It aims to animate and highlight the very series of transformations of the şumperák while also modelingly indicating its complexity. Photographer and project author Tomáš Pospěch explains: “At the beginning of my interest was a simple fascination with the series. More than four and a half thousand of these houses were built. Behind all of them lies the same idea, plan.” The exhibition thus reflects on the question of originality and seriality in architecture.

The annual exhibition program of Gallery VIPER is financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Capital City of Prague, and the Prague 8 District.

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