The Emil Filla Gallery in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Presentation

It is of course important that art on the edges, in the raw industrial agglomerations tends to be more communicative than that of the elitist atmosphere of the superb works from Prague. This art from the periphery is a sharp observer of the human longing for beauty, although at the same time it has absorbed the impersonal nature of the industrial landscape with its social and environmental dangers. It is looking for a new and up to date language pervaded with paradox, which will bring life to these areas. This language naturally uses visual symbols and different common technological media, but first and foremost it raises concrete questions (the presence of violence, the boom of drug dependency, the research into the peripheral strata of society, feminism, the power of the media and of course environmental problems.

Ústí nad Labem is situated in the northern part of Czech Republic (at 100 km from Prague, 20 km far from the border with Germany and at 50 km from Dresden). Before 1945 this prosperous industrial city was mostly inhabited by German population (as part of former Sudetenland). They were displaced after the end of war and at that moment all the original cultural roots of this locality were broken. The new generation of Czech settlers was not able to adopt the raw environment immediately.

This region is overfilled by a lot of industrial enterprises (mostly old ones and unprofitable), chemical factories and open coal mines, as well as by high density of unemployment and extreme political positions. Though Ústí nad Labem is a seat of Jan Evangelist Purkyně University, the lack of educational systems is seen and the social structure is one of the worst in the whole republic. During the 1980s it was one of the most polluted localities in central Europe. Even if the ecological situation is better now, it will take plenty of time to improve the damaged environment. Recently Ústí nad Labem became known as a city of "Matiční street wall" - the symbol of rising racism. the local government played a very sad and dangerous role in this case.

History

The Emil Filla Gallery was built as a part of very bizarre "Regional Commitee of Communist Party Palace" at the main square of Ústí nad Labem during the first half of the 1980th. Emil Filla was a well-known Czech cubist painter. Because of his left wing positions he was accepted also by the communist régime. After the end of the 2nd World War he settled down and worked in North Bohemia.

The space of the gallery is broken-up to two, bigger and smaller rooms (altogether 190 m^{2 net exhibition space}) and is located at the streetfloor of the building. The owner of the premises, the City of Ústí nad Labem demands reduced, noncommercial rent. Earlier it was owned by the ancien régime Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists and was absolutely closed to the artists outside the organization. After the "Velvet revolution" in 1989 this gallery had very big, almost fatal problems. Because of lack of money it was nearly dissolved.

The People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation (Nadace "Lidé vytvarnému umení - vytvarné uméní lidem") was founded by 12 persons (visual artists, art critics, curator, Mayor of the city, performing artists from Cinoherní studio theatre) in 1992 and immediately started to organize several exhibitions in this gallery. During the second half of 1990's (after some legislative alterations in the Czech Republic) the official status has been "o.p.s. = public benefit association". Since 1994 the Emil Filla Gallery has been run by this organisation which also prepares all the exhibition programme.

Activities

The People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation tries to improve the social and cultural climate of the industrial city and the whole North Bohemian region. The Foundation cooperates with Ústí nad Labem City Council, District Council in Ústí nad Labem, Regional Union of Visual Artists, Department of Art Education and Institute of Visual Art at Jan Evangelist Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Činoherní Studio Theatre and other institutions. Some of the artists from the Emil Filla Gallery art community work as professors at the University (Jiří Bartůněk, Jaroslav Prášil, Miloš Michálek), two of them (Pavel Kopřiva, Daniel Hanzlík) teach at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. All the activities of the Foundation are made possible with the material and moral assistence of the sponsors, City Council, District Council, Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic and other institutions.

The Foundation arranges exhibitions not only in Emil Filla Gallery but also in the whole North Bohemian region (Severní Čechy). The People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation tries to introduce both the best Czech contemporary visual artists as well as important and attractive representatives of the international art scene (focused on central Europe) to the local audience. The Foundation helps young artists from this region to organize their initial art projects.

During the second half of the 1990s the Emil Filla Gallery became known as one of the most interesting galleries in the Czech Republic outside of the traditional cultural centres (Prague, Brno). Thanks to the social climate of the place the programme of this Gallery is more open and focused on social content in art.

The most outstanding projects included

• Narušená rovnováha - Disturbed Balance (Citadela Gallery Prague 1993), the introduction of seven young north Bohemian artists, the young generation of the Emil Filla Gallery art community
• Soukromá anamnéza - Private Anamnesis (Regional Gallery Liberec 1995), a group show, which spread cool aesthetics back into the region, focusing on the social content in art, reflexion of the systems of communication or gender art. Paintings and other traditional media as photos or digital prints, objects and installations were used.
• Ostražitá estetika - Alert Aesthetics (Big Orbit Gallery Buffalo, USA, Emil Filla Gallery 1996), an international curatorial exchange programme based on the residencies of curators in host galleries organized by the National Association of Artists Organizations Washington D. C.
• Sever - North (Václav Špála Gallery Prague 1997), an exhibition in the prestigious gallery of the Republic.
• Black and Blue (Kovačka 3 Gallery - Klub Otok Dubrovnik, Croatia, Emil Filla Gallery 1998), an international exhibition project, which became the starting point of the collaboration between several galleries in Central Europe.
• Five Days Project (Emil Filla Gallery 1998), total and permanent occupation of the gallery. The programme of 24 hours a day included performances, installations, lectures, slide shows for a wide scale of audience.
• 90tka pokračuje - Art of 1990s Continues (Regional Museum and the house of National Bank in Ústí nad Labem 2000).
   

The curators try to bring contemporary visual art close to the wider scale of people even outside the gallery in public spaces of the city. The best and the biggest project focused on this kind of art was called Public District (held in 1999) as a show which was spread all over the city (the viewers could meet the artworks in the supermarkets, zoo garden, city stadium, buses, at bus stops, on billboards, listen the art project in radio broadcasting, on CDs, watch in local newspapers. The best contemporary Czech artists and very important foreign artists (as Slaven Tolj - Croatia, Grzegorz Klaman - Poland, Bojan Štokelj - Slovenia, Antal Lakner - Hungary, Roman Ondák - Slovakia etc.) took part on it and played really important role in the damaged city.

Several members of the Emil Filla Gallery art community (especially the younger generation of the artists) became known not only in the frame of Czech art scene but also abroad and took a part at the important international exhibitions as Manifesta I - Rotterdam 1998 (Pavel Kopřiva) or After the Wall - Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, Budapest 1999/2000 (Jiří Černický) etc. The last named artist also obtained the prestigious Jiří Chalupecký Award (founded in 1990 by Václav Havel), as the most interesting young Czech visual artist in 1998. The Gallery is also directly engaged in international curatorial projects like the Salon of Young Zagreb 2001, co-curated by Michal Koleček who joined the board of the Jiří Chalupecký Award (see above) in 2000. Emil Filla activities are reflected in all important Czech art magazines, newspapers and on Czech TV.

The members of the People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation attempt to keep the programme of Emil Filla Gallery open to different theoretical opinions. Since the beginning they have been collaborating with a lot of well-known curators, such as Jiří Valoch, Jiří Zemina, Josef Hlaváček, Ludvík Hlaváček, Zbyněk Sedláček, Radek Váňa, Marta Smolíková, Martina Pachmanová, Martin Dostál, Marek Pokorný, Miroslav Šubert, Tereza Petišková, František Kowolowski, Aneta Szylak (Poland), Vladimír Beskyd (Slovakia), Darko Šimičič (Croatia), János Szoboszlai, Lívia Páldi (Hungary), Peter Tomas Dobrila (Slovenia), etc.

Although the Gallery is the centre of People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People activities, their curators have participated in an impressive number of exhibition projects of institutions such as

• private and non-profit galleries
• state and regional galleries
• city galleries
• institutions abroad (Buffalo, Dresden, Dubrovnik, Dunaújváros, Gdaňsk, Munich, Norre Port - Sweden, Poznaň, Stockholm, Warsaw, Zagreb)

The People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation has approximately 10 long term exhibitions and 1or 2 short term (max. 1 week) special shows (for example the presentation of students diploma works) a year. The Foundation wants to affect even wider spectrum of visitors. This is the reason why its members also prepare various activities like:

• Concerts
• Performances
• Theatre performances
• Lectures
• Educational programmes in cooperation with basic, secondary schools and the J. E. Purkyně University

The year 2000 saw the opening of the programme of short term residencies. The foreign visual artists can stay in Ústí nad Labem approximately one month and prepare a solo exhibition influented by this place. The Gallery offers accomodation (single room in good quality students hostel), the studio, per diem and an interpreter - assistant. The average cost of a guest is Kc 1000, ca € 28 a day, half of which is per diem. The guest programme is one of the reasons why the Foundation decided to rent permanently the second exhibition space (a former appartment) which will be open soon and cooperate with the third curator Anna Šestáková (Slovakia). The second site, too, will be rented from the municipalit.

The publishing activities is a strong feature of the Gallery. Dozens of full-colours catalogues have been brought out. These include

1. Large retrospective and representative catalogues of important Czech artists, who could not exhibit in the past régime.
2. Voluminous catalogues of group (mostly international) curatorial projects
3. Catalogues of important regional artists
4. First small catalogues of the young (mostly regional) visual artists and its group shows

 

Printruns go from 400 to 1000. The largest catalogues include 30 pages text and 50 oictures, the small ones have 5-10 pictures only.

 

Structure of Emil Filla Gallery

Board of trustees - 5 non-paid members: representatives of visual artists, sponsors and members of important municipal and regional institutions.
Financial supervisors - 3 non-paid members.
All members are appointed after consulting with current trustees and with the members of the foundation. The functions rotate after 3 years.
The members of the foundation are all the arts community linked with Emil Filla Gallery, University staff and sponsors, representatives of city and district council.

Staff

The programme of the Gallery is realized by:

• 1 secretary manager
• 2 permanent curators
• freelance curators
• 1 custodian
• in the case of demanding projects the temporary custodians
   

^{The secretary manager is} the only one employee engaged in contact with sponsors and press, administration, correspondence, preparation/setting-up and proof-reading of the catalogues, custodian works, coordination of other custodians, provading of cleaning. All other members of the staff work on contract.

The Chief Curator of the Gallery is Michal Koleček, born in 1966, graduated and received Master's degree at the Jan Evangelist Purkyně University Ústí nad Labem. In 1992 he was one of the founders of the People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation.

Table 1: Numbers of Emil Filla Galery visitors

1992	5.614 persons
1993	3.176 persons
1994	14.858 persons
1995	13.134 persons
1996	12.148 persons
1997	10.165 persons
1998	10.998 persons
1999	11.137 persons

 

Financing

People to Visual Art - Visual Art to People Foundation activities are financed by several sources:

1. Sponsors contributions given by private businessmen, industrial enterprises and trade companies
2. Financial presentation of the city
3. Allowances of the institutions cooperated with Emil Filla Gallery on publishing of the catalogues
4. Grant systems, such as (1) Ministry of Culture and (2) Czech and foreign foundations

The general sponsors of the Gallery (PVA-VAP) were:

• City of Ústí nad Labem
• Severočeská plynárenská (gas factory)
• Teplárna Ústí nad Labem (district-heating station)
• Česká spořitelna (savings bank)
• Spolchemie (chemical factory)
   

The further big sponsors were:

• Universal banka (bank)
• Setuza (chemical factory)
• District Council Ústí nad Labem
• Drinks Union (beverage company - brewery)
   

The Gallery and the Foundation cooperate also with these smaller companies - DTP studios, who provide scans or similar outputs with reduced prices or free of charge.

• Xeroco
• Ateliér Limr
• Rose+Kranz
• CDL Design
• Aleano Comp.
   

The activities of the Gallery and the Foundation are supported by grants of:

• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of Foreign Affaires
• Foundation for Contemporary Art Praque (former Soros Center for Contemporary Art)
• Open Society Fund Prague
• ProHelvetia Foundation
• British Council
• Norwich School of Art
• Regional Union of Visual Artist
• Prins Bernhard Fund (the Netherlands)
• National Association of Artists Organizations (USA)
   

In case of city and district councils the cooperation is based on long term agreements (eg concerning the space rental). Also with local business sponsors we have long term agreements. Grants must be applied for year by year for projects. From the Ministry of Culture we get nereal structural support as well as special grants for the international activities.

Tables 2-13: Incomes and expenses between 1994-1999.

Incomes of 1994
City of Ústí nad Labem	€ 14.500
City of Ústí nad Labem	€ 1.500
Česká Spořitelna	€ 7.250
Česká spořitelna	€ 2.670
Czech Fund of Art Fundation	€ 7.250
B.I.R.T. NORD Real Estate Agency.	€ 1.000
Teplárna Ústí nad Labem	€ 1.000
Ekoagrobanka	€ 620
Total	€ 33.500

 

Expenses of 1994
Wages	€ 1.500
Operational expenses	€ 14.500
Catalogues	€ 14.500
Investment	€ 3.000
Total	€ 33.500

 

Incomes of 1995
City of Ústí nad Labem	€ 11.430
Česká Spořitelna	€ 6.570
Czech Fund of Art Fundation	€ 1.500
Open Society Fund Prague	€ 1.700
Teplárna Ústí nad Labem	€ 750
Contributions from other institutions - galleries (for catalogues)	€ 13.600
Total	€ 35.550

 

Expenses of 1995
Wages	€ 6.890
Operational expenses	€ 11.460
Catalogues	€ 17.180
Investment	0
Total	€ 35.550

 

Incomes of 1996
City of Ústí nad Labem	€ 12.300
Česká Spořitelna	€ 1.430
Czech Fund of Art Fundation	€ 1.140
Severočeská Plynárenská	€ 4.300
Teplárna Ústí nad Labem	€ 1.710
Setuza Ústí nad Labem	€ 1.430
Ministry of Foreign Affaires of the Czech Republic	€ 1.000
U. S. Centre for Culture and Commerce	€ 1.100
North Bohemian Coal Mines	€ 1.440
B.I.R.T. NORD Real Estate Agency	€ 630
Total	€ 26.480

 

Expenses of 1996
Wages	€ 7.430
Operational expenses	€ 7.150
Catalogues	€ 11.900
Investment	0
Total	€ 26.480

 

Incomes of 1997
City of Ústí nad Labem	€ 14.300
Česká Spořitelna	€ 1.430
Severočeská plynárenská	€ 4.300
Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic	€ 3.710
Contributions from other institutions - galleries (for catalogues)	€ 2.860
Total	€ 26.600

 

Expenses of 1997
Wages	€ 7.710
Operational expenses	€ 11.350
Catalogues	€ 7.540
Investment	0
Total	€ 26.600

 

Incomes of 1998
City of Ústí nad Labem 11.430 EUR	€ 11.430
District Council Ústí nad Labem 1.140 EUR	€ 1.140
Česká Spořitelna 1.430 EUR	€ 1.430
Severočeská Plynárenská 1.430 EUR	€ 1.430
Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic 10.150 EUR	€ 10.150
Contributions from other institutions - galleries (for catalogues)	€ 1.000
Total	€ 26.580

 

Expenses of 1998:
Wages	€ 4.100
Operational expenses	€ 7.330
Catalogues	€ 12.290
Investment	€ 2.860
Total	€ 26.580

 

Incomes of 1999
SCARP (Foundation for Contemporary Art Prague)	€ 9.510
SCARP (Foundation for Contemporary Art Prague)	€ 4.860
City of Ústí nad Labem	€ 11.430
Open Society Fund Prague	€ 8.290
Annual Grant of Foundation for Contemporary Art, Prague	€ 1.720
Accessory Grant of Foundation for Contemporary Art, Prague	€ 1.000
Czech Fund of Art Fundation	€ 1.430
Teplárna Ústí nad Labem	€ 570
Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic	€ 2.860
Ministry of Culture of the Czech republic	€ 1.430
Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic	€ 1.140
Ministry of Foreign Affaires of the Czech Republic	€ 860
Severočeská plynárenská	€ 1.430
District Council Ústí nad Labem	€ 570
ProHelvetia Foundation	€ 3.290
Total	€ 50.390

 

Expenses of 1999
Wages	€ 4.290
Public District project	€ 20 000
Operational expenses	€ 8.950
Catalogues	€ 14.290
Investment	€ 2.860
Total	€ 50.390

Remarks.

As the figures indicate, every Kc is spent each year.
A few examples for investment items: computers, photo and video cameras, projector etc.
The composition of the Public District project (1999) is as follows: billboards, city light boxes, iron sculptures, sticky boards on city buses, self-sealing plates, neon light systems, CD, phone calls, mail and DHL service, miscellaneous.

 

(Case study prepared by Zdena Kolečkova)

Address:

Emil Filla Gallery,
Dlouhá 13,
400 01 Ústi nad Labem,
Czech Republic

fax/phone: +47 521 18 30
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.