The construction of SEFO awaits the signing of the contract for design work

Olomouc – The long-planned construction of the Central European Forum in Olomouc (SEFO) is facing one of its crucial milestones today, as representatives of the Museum of Art will sign a contract for design work. The new museum building, which is intended to become a place for the presentation of Central European visual art in the future, will be constructed in a gap next to the Museum of Modern Art on Denisova Street. In 2019, the government allocated 593 million crowns for the construction. The key plot of land, measuring almost 600 m², designated for the construction was acquired by the museum in September 2021.

The SEFO project has been planned in Olomouc for over ten years. The new building is set to offer exhibition spaces for artworks from Central Europe and the necessary facilities for the operation of the museum. This primarily includes larger depots for the ever-growing collections, as well as a new library and study room. The new central depot is designed to hold up to 200,000 artworks; currently, the museum owns around 90,000 collection items with a market value of approximately two billion crowns.

The definitive decision to build the long-planned exhibition according to the original design by architect Jan Šépka was announced in 2020 by then-Minister of Culture Lubomír Zaorálek (CSSD). The decision-making process regarding the form of SEFO was preceded by a lengthy discussion regarding three options – to utilize the vast space of the abandoned Hanácké Barracks, to hold an architectural competition for a new exhibition concept, or to utilize the original design by Jan Šépka, which proposed a futuristic appearance for the new building. This unconventional design of a concrete structure in the city’s heritage conservation area has elicited mixed reactions from the public for years. According to the museum director Ondřej Zatloukal, pragmatic, ideological, and conceptual reasons informed the decision.