1920-2020 Prague-Tokyo / influences, parallels, sense of commonality

The Jaroslav Fragner Gallery has prepared an extensive project mapping one century of architectural dialogue between Japan and the Czech Republic.

The Jaroslav Fragner Gallery invites you to its first exhibition of this year accompanied by an extensive publication entitled 1920–2020 Prague–Tokyo / influences, parallels, a sense of commonality. The exterior part of the exhibition is currently open to the public in the courtyard of the Bethlehem Chapel, which can be visited every day from 10 am to 7 pm. The exhibition presents dozens of models, photographs, and artworks, including many unique pieces, and a number of Japanese authors who have not been exhibited in the Czech Republic before, as well as Czech authors whose structures were directly realized in Japan or whose work has significantly influenced Japanese architecture. For example, a replica of the famous pavilion model for Expo 1970 in Osaka by architects Viktor Rudiš, Vladimír Palla, and Aleš Jenček is exhibited in the gallery. The exhibition also showcases the work of the Czech-born architect Antonín Raymond, considered one of the founders of modern architecture in Japan, or the progressive utopian visions of the 1960s that inspired many architects in our country. Also noteworthy is the industrial palace by Jan Letzel built at the beginning of the last century in Hiroshima, whose remains recalling the events of the end of World War II are known as the "Atomic Dome." A tea pavilion by Jakub Fišer was created for the exhibition, and artworks by Patrik Hábl, Jindřich Zeithamml, Michal Cihlář, Marek Ther, Veronika Richterová, and Epos 257 are also exhibited. The interior part of the exhibition at the Jaroslav Fragner Gallery will be accessible as soon as the epidemic situation allows. An integral part of the exhibition, which is also planned to be presented in Japan in collaboration with the Czech Center in Tokyo, will be a freely available short online video documentary introducing the exhibition and specific works by the authors themselves. Simultaneously with the start of the exhibition, a comprehensive Czech-English catalog is being released, involving over twenty Czech and Japanese historians, theorists, and architects who, in addition to architecture, also focus on connections in the fields of fine and applied arts and landscape design.