<Message from the Zdeněk Fránek Exhibition in České Budějovice>

This year's holidays at the House of Art in České Budějovice feature the work of architect Zdeněk Fránek. Specifically, it is about the project of the Church of the Holy Trinity and Cardinal Beran in Libiš, presented in the form of reliefs embedded in the gallery walls. Visitors to Mental Relief may be surprised by the emptiness of the exhibition halls. Today's society wants to be constantly entertained and, for their (zero) entrance fee, expects a flood of art in the spirit of "the more, the better." Fránek's exhibition represents a sacred space where the intangible holds the highest value. In churches, we value the peace for personal contemplation the most. The intangible spaces illustrated by light change during the day and remind us of our transience. Through an installation hidden behind a wall, Fránek answers more questions of the present.
Fránek is a gamble. Although in the end you always gain, you can never be sure of the outcome in advance. Just like Philip Johnson, he wants to ride the first wave. Unlike other creators, he does not cultivate an easily recognizable style but wants to try every shape, material, and technology. All his projects are developed on the go and accompanied by pain. The adventure of architecture would vanish if he had to step twice into the same river. He is an exceptional personality who has chosen an uncomfortable path.
Wherever you go to see an exhibition of Álvaro Siza, you can already look forward to beautiful sketches and wooden models that will not tire even after fifty years. Fránek himself admits a fondness for another star of world architecture, Tadao Ando, whom he even traveled to Osaka, Japan, to meet, but rather than to Ando's monotonously repetitive concrete creations, Fránek feels closer to another Japanese architect, Toyo Ito, for whom every project is a challenge. With each Ito commission, the structural balancing act matures and never repeats itself or clings to a single material. Fránek's (like Ito's) studio has nurtured numerous architects over the past decades who now run their own successful practices.
The exhibition Mental Relief (2019) downplays the author's ego, addresses the question of presenting a sacred building in an exhibition space, and simultaneously highlights the famous gallery, which previously had to change its face each time to meet the artist’s demands. The current exhibition in České Budějovice is hard to classify, just like every new realization by Fránek. For those who had the opportunity to see the In the Bowels of Architecture exhibition (2011-12) at the House of Art in Brno, which Fránek gifted to himself for his fiftieth birthday under the curatorial leadership of Rostislav Koryčánek, every subsequent exhibition will be just a developed fragment of a certain theme. For example, Too Invisible Architecture (2012) at the house U Rytířů in Litomyšl presented a dynamically curved tower reflecting the adjacent Renaissance facade in its steel shell. That not every vision must end in absolute success is demonstrated by The Pillow House (2014-15) at the Veletržní Palace, of which few people have any idea how the experimental project actually turned out. The exhibition Measure & Scale (2016) at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery was meant to be a defense of three buildings currently being constructed by Fránek's studio, which not only attracted attention (the corporate Liko-S and the tourist Skywalk), but also provoked protests in the old town environment (the Marshmallow case).
Architectural exhibitions hold an increasingly significant position in the program of the House of Art in České Budějovice, but a limited number of Czech studios have succeeded in making it onto curator Michal Škoda's list. All had to approach the exhibition of architecture in a different way. Projektil (2010) wallpapered the exhibition halls with photographs obtained from the users of their buildings. The Liberec Mjölk (2012) temporarily moved their practice into the gallery for a month and accommodated other artists in a wooden cell in the square. The studio MCA (2014) cast massive tables in the gallery where visitors could quietly read. Jan Šépka (2016) appropriated the Budějovice landmark with the installation Perception, attracting an unprecedented number of visitors to the gallery. After a three-year hiatus, another domestic studio comes to the forefront with the exhibition Mental Relief.
Those who let the exhibition slip by all summer will have the opportunity to attend the finissage on Saturday, August 24, 2019, at 5:00 PM, in the presence of architect Zdeněk Fránek, who will also introduce his new catalog.