Prague plans to lease the Old Town Market to a digital art gallery

Prague - The Prague City Hall plans to rent out the recently closed Old Town Market located between Rytířská and 28. října streets to the company Signal Playground, which organizes the audiovisual art show Signal Festival. They want to create a cultural center with a gallery in the building. City councilors discussed the proposal today, but the decision has been postponed due to uncertainties regarding the rent amount. In the previous electoral term, the City Hall planned to renovate the building for approximately half a billion crowns, but this was abandoned due to high costs.

The city plans to sign the lease for 3.5 years as a temporary solution until it prepares a long-term solution. According to the document for the councilors, the tenant plans to invest 12.4 million crowns in space modifications and another 17.8 million crowns for technical equipment. "The ambition of the artistic space Signal Space is to become the leading Prague gallery in the field of digital art by utilizing the experience from more than a decade of organizing the Signal Festival," states the document.

The councilors have postponed the approval of the lease for a later meeting. According to the councilor for finance, Zdeněk Kovářík (ODS), the reason is that there is currently no agreement among the city hall departments on how to calculate the rent. The postponed proposal set the rent at 1.2 million crowns per year, but according to the councilor, it is necessary to find an agreement among officials before it is approved by the city management.

The City Hall closed the historically protected building from the late 19th century at the beginning of 2020 due to an upcoming reconstruction, which was later tendered for 429.9 million crowns excluding VAT. The price and nature of the tender were criticized, for example, by the Pirates, and as a result, the city management ultimately did not approve the awarding of the contract. Since then, the space has been closed to the public.

The market was constructed between 1894 and 1897 according to the project of architect Jindřich Fialka, who was primarily inspired by Paris. The original appearance was significantly disrupted by insensitive constructions during the previous regime. Similarly designed markets operate, for example, in Barcelona, Dresden, Budapest, and Berlin.