2024-05-06 03:25:47
Mechanized bugs spread ink and ink in six colors across the canvas prepared by the painter Petr Nikl. The leading Czech artist has been working with flashlight toys for years, but this time he had an assignment. Like five other authors, he was approached by the organizers of the Prague Spring festival to visually create for them the cycle of six symphonic poems Má vlast by Bedřich Smetana.
Nickel divided the canvas into equal parts and turned on the bugs. From May 12, when this year’s show begins, the painting will commute with the entire ensemble between the Rudolfinum and the Municipal House. Visitors will thus be able to see them before each concert.
This new accompanying program is called Art Salon and is primarily intended to complement the music. In addition, it contains a practical level.
It will provide another source of funding for the festival, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary next year. The paintings will be auctioned for his benefit on May 26 on the Artslimit.com portal and also at a benefit auction organized by the Kodl Gallery.
It was with its curators Jan Kudrna and Milan Dospěl that the organizers invented Art Salon. They selected six Czech artists who use various techniques and at the same time draw long-term inspiration from music.
Perception of color and sound
The visual representation of sound in modern art dates back to the 1960s, when the American composer John Cage began experimenting in this direction. Soon after, Milan Grygar also created according to acoustic perception. Today, the ninety-seven-year-old matador of post-war art is the oldest of the six authors who addressed the Prague Spring. Grygar created a work for him following his cycle of Antiphons, which is the designation of two alternating voices in the Christian liturgy.
Photographer Ivan Pinkava. | Photo: Jakub Šimůnek
Internationally recognized photographer Ivan Pinkava took a picture called My Fatherland. It reflects his relationship to My homeland. “I was afraid that I wouldn’t follow a very narrative, descriptive path, at the same time so that it wouldn’t slide into sweetness,” says the native of Náchod, who compares the resulting work to an abstract landscape.
Conceptual artist and performer Daniel Vlček worked on the motif Z české luhů a hájů. “Because I’m interested in the landscape, I myself record sounds in the landscape. I often make field recordings, which I then use as a basis,” he reasons. He used vinyls with a recording of Smetana’s composition as templates, which he layered and overlapped in various ways.
Ira Svobodová was based on the poem Šárka. “It’s a story full of betrayal, love, tension, and I like to react to these things,” admits the painter, who has been inspired by classical music for a long time. The number six in her image is reflected in the number of spears around which she formed a pink ribbon.
With six starting colors, again in the picture called No. 78 Jakub Roztočil worked. Today, he devotes himself to visual arts, but in his twenties he was still producing dance music. And he is still interested in sound. He invented a machine that applies color to a canvas covered with a thin layer of water according to the source music. The author enters into it and influences the form of the image.
Jakub Roztočić also created a work commissioned by the Prague Spring. | Photo: Jakub Šimůnek
Claims on the budget
The vernissage of six works will take place in the Municipal House at the opening concert, the results of the auction will be announced at the final one. Art Salon should start a new tradition of an accompanying artistic program, such as Smetanova Litomyšl, for example, has a different conception of Czech music festivals.
Above all, however, the Art Salon could help improve the budget of the Prague Spring, which this year is around 100 million crowns. More than half are contributions from the Ministry of Culture and the Prague Municipality. The organizers have been finding the rest themselves since 2000, when the Prague Spring was transformed from a subsidized organization of the Ministry of Culture, such as the Czech Philharmonic or the National Gallery, to a public benefit society.
Pavel Trojan is the director of Prague Spring from 2022. | Photo: Nadia Ponomarova
Today, it is probably the most important local cultural institution, which is no longer established by the state or local government and which is thus forced to multi-source financing. This means that, like other major events, it combines revenue from ticket sales with contributions from sponsors and patrons.
“However, as the largest classical music festival in the Czech Republic, we are associated with high expectations of a reference show and truly extraordinary projects, which also entail large budget demands,” says Pavel Trojan, who has been the director of Prague Spring since August 2022.
This year, the budget helped to improve the Year of Czech Music. The state allocated extra money for this celebration of important anniversaries. Prague Spring submitted three extraordinary projects for more than 20 million crowns to the grant call, including the opening concert with the Berlin Philharmonic. The cost of a performance by one of the world’s best orchestras exceeds ten million.
“We have been preparing this concert for almost ten years. But we believe that such an exceptional act will return many times over to Czech culture. Even thanks to the live broadcast and recording, we will be reminded for decades that the emblematic piece Mou Vlast was played by the Berlin Philharmonic,” notes Trojan. The concert will be televised on May 12.
Prague Spring has not had a general partner for the last six years, this year it found a new one in the energy company ČEZ. It is also supported, for example, by innogy or Cetin from the PPF group. The organizers do not disclose the amount of their contributions. “Without these big sponsors, Prague Spring would not be able to afford to invite world orchestras and come up with interesting innovative projects,” Trojan emphasizes.
According to him, cultural sponsorship brings companies social prestige and should be talked about in the same way as, for example, partnerships in sports. “Artists are not messengers of heaven who create art without the right to a fee. Therefore, when someone decides to support culture financially, it is right that this good decision is known,” he says.
According to him, convincing a company to partner is not an easy task for many months or years. One person from the eleven-member festival team is dedicated to fundraising. Every year, they have to secure up to 30 million crowns from sponsors. “There are not many companies that are willing to consider these sessions,” said Trojan, who has been working for the festival since 2004 and has been its spokesman for a long time. He followed the economic side of the matter even before taking up the position of director.
In Czech culture, the Prague Spring has long been one of the biggest festivals, even though, for example, the Karlovy Vary or Colors of Ostrava already managed 200 million crowns last year. Even this is only a fraction of what similar events cost abroad. For example, the festivities in Bayreuth, Germany, which last a week longer, this year have a budget of 700 million crowns.
Prague Spring is trying to adapt to the Czech reality. For example, when companies do not have enough money to become partners of the entire festival, they can only support a specific concert. This tends to be attractive, for example, to foreign companies that are so proud to sign up for an artist from their country.
Not only in Bayreuth, income from patrons is an indispensable part of the budget. Following the pattern common in the west, Prague Spring also founded its own club of friends years ago. Today, it brings together roughly a hundred people who are willing to contribute out of their own pockets. The most generous donate even lower hundreds of thousands and buy dozens of tickets in addition. Overall, ticket sales from patrons amount to millions of crowns. The festival rewards them with the possibility of meeting interesting personalities, mediating behind-the-scenes experiences or extraordinary trips, such as when last year he took donors to Cardiff in Wales to see the local orchestra led by the Czech conductor Tomáš Hanus.