Gallery Petrohrad
address: Rejskova 5, Plzeň
curator: Tomáš Moravec, Matěj Al Ali
telephone: +420 731 489 992
e-mail: galeriepetrohrad@email.cz
opening hours: pondělí až pátek 10 – 19h, sobota a neděle 12 – 19h
gallery opened: 01.10.2007
gallery closed: 31.12.2008
opening hours: Mon – Fri 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Sat – Sun 12 a.m. – 7 p.m.
gallery opened: 10-01-2007
gallery closed: 12-31-2008
The independent gallery Petrohrad arose from the initiative of students of the multimedia atelier at UUD ZČU in Pilsen as an attempt to establish a local “hot-spot” for contemporary art. Their aim was to create a communication platform for contemporary visual arts in Pilsen region, above all for the upcoming young generation gathered around the art college at Pilsen. The curatorial team consisted of Tomáš Moravec and Matěj Al Ali.
Email from one of the curators Tomáš Moravec from 08-20-2009:
Good evening! Dear Lenka, thanks for addressing us and for your offer to participate in the projects of Altán gallery…
I feel an urge to set a few important things right, to prevent more unintended mistakes to be made:
First of all: the original gallery Petrohrad, active for one year only, 2007-2008, belonged to the category of institution you’re mentioning in the questionnary – i.e. independent galleries, led and sponsored by artists.
After certain time we closed the gallery at the original place for the lack of finance and after longer pause we tried to reopen it on a different address. Meanwhile the structure and motivation of the founding members changed. Within the background of the original gallery our team was formed into a group of artists-designers and we had an ambition to establish studio Petrohrad, working space for our commercial projects which could be at the same time connected with exhibition space. According to this spirit we accomplished only one exhibition, the first and at once the last exhibition of Roman Štětina and Dominik Gajarský at the beginning of this summer. Shortly after that the project collided with inner problems of the studio and we realized that we were trying to mix oil with water…In the course of considerations about possible dramaturgy and strategy of studio Petrohrad I fully realized my personal stance of artist-designer and came to the point when I realized I don’t feel anymore like conducting two trains going the different directions. Gainful position of a graphic designer is rather tempting but it was ruled over by my ambition to do the independent things my way… so at the present time I’m gradually breaking away from studio Petrohrad.
Thus I would like to stop feeding the image of studio-gallery Petrohrad in public awareness. The rest of the team has the ambition to carry on with their activities in graphic studio, but without any linkage to the exhibition space.
Of course I can answer the above mentioned questionnary knowing that gallery Petrohrad has become by now the past… I will stay in touch. Thanks and wish you nice evening!
Tomáš