NGP: New Media – Jiří Příhoda

The National Gallery Prague opens a new space NGP: New Media. In this space, one work from the new media collection will be presented twice a year.

In autumn 2025, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition for the current year of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award, the National Gallery Prague will open a new space NGP: New Media. The space will showcase one work from the collection of new media twice a year. The exhibition program of the space features the video installation by the laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award for 1997, Jiří Příhoda, titled The Great 30s (1994) from the Magnus Art collection, which the gallery acquired last year as a gift from J&T Bank. The donated collection includes a set of works by 28 laureates of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. The Great 30s is an early work by Jiří Příhoda from his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the monumental sculpture studio of Aleš Veselý. The artist has been using video projection from the beginning in specific spatial situations and works exclusively with archival or film material. In the case of The Great 30s, the artist uses footage of the German transatlantic airships Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, including the crash of the latter in 1937. A piece of duralumin sheet, onto which the artist projects the footage of the airships, refers to the innovative duralumin construction of the airships. The modern luxury airships, which were also utilized by Nazi propaganda for their iconicity, can be perceived as embodiments of the contradictory "great" 30s that followed the Great Depression and preceded World War II. The NGP: New Media space is accessible for free via the stairs from the Small Hall of the Trade Fair Palace.