The exhibition ANCHORS OF MAY in Liberec

The Liberec Regional Gallery will remind its visitors where they could shop during the previous regime. The KOTVY MÁJE exhibition, which will open on Thursday, September 25, will showcase the fifteen most significant Czech department stores of the 1960s and 1970s. Although this architecture is often viewed with misunderstanding or disdain, the exhibition will demonstrate that the selected "obchoďáky" - most commonly called priorities - have an irreplaceable role in Czech architecture. Not only the most famous objects like Kotva or Máj will be presented, but also regional department stores in Pardubice, Olomouc, Ústí nad Labem, and Plzeň. The now non-existent Liberec shopping center Ještěd will also be of interest. The selection also includes unrealized designs: four studies by the prominent Czech architect Alena Šrámková and an unimplemented proposal by the well-known Jihlava priority designed by Růžena Žertová. Additionally, Slovak department stores will be displayed in a smaller area.

The KOTVY MÁJE / Czech Department Stores 1965–1975 exhibition was prepared by architect and architectural historian Petr Klíma in 2011, who also supplemented it with a publication of the same name, which will be available for purchase at the Liberec gallery. "One of the goals of the entire project is to show various solutions to the typological task of a department store in the then Czechoslovakia. This relates to the approach of architects, the possibilities of suppliers, but also the ambitions of investors or the very concept and purpose of the building," presents the exhibition Petr Klíma. Therefore, the exhibition includes both full-range department stores of the Prior chain and specialized and cooperative department stores or shopping centers that group multiple sellers. "The selected objects naturally reflect the individual contribution of the authors, who often reflect contemporary architectural trends worldwide. They also respond to different urban contexts," adds Klíma.

Visitors to the Liberec exhibition can also compare the architectural values of the original realizations and their successors. The most striking example is the Liberec shopping center Ještěd (by authors Miroslav Masák and Karel Hubáček from the local Sial) and the Forum shopping center, which replaced the remarkable building. A similar debate took place in Olomouc in connection with the reconstruction of the local priority (realized according to the design of architect Jan Melichar). The long-standing discussion about the future of the Prior department store in Jihlava also continues.

One of the goals of the exhibition is thus to contribute to the social debate about the meaning of protecting and respecting the original buildings of the 1960s and 1970s, which are an integral part of the history of Czech architecture and the collective memory of our society. "The example of Liberec's Ještěd can serve here as a typical example - is it worthwhile to protect modern architecture as a monument? Can we transform it as in the case of the Olomouc priority? Is it beneficial, or is it better to preserve the original form, even at the cost of certain economic limitations?" pointed out another interesting subtext of the exhibition Jan Randáček, the gallery director.

The book published for the exhibition presents the genre in more detail; it contains numerous period photographs, plans, but also two extensive texts about the Prague department store Máj, whose design comes from the workshop of the legendary Sial, and the Pardubice priority. The texts - like the exhibition - prove that despite the upcoming normalization of Husák's regime, some ideas of the "golden sixties" still resonated in architecture.

The exhibition will be opened on Thursday, September 25, at the Regional Gallery of Liberec (the baths) with the participation of its author Petr Klíma, followed by an author’s tour at 6:15 PM. KOTVY MÁJE will be on display in the gallery until November 30.

KOTVY MÁJE | Czech Department Stores 1965-1975
Regional Gallery Liberec, 25.9.-30.11.2014
Exhibition Author: Mgr. Ing. arch. Petr Klíma
Vernissage: 25.9.2014, 5:30 PM
Guided Tour: 25.9.2014, 6:15 PM

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