Art at DOX, Kinsky, GOP and Trade Fair Palace

The Old Town Square has the Kinsky Palace (National Gallery of Prague) which has a permanent Asian art collection and temporary exhibition - this time Gerhard Richter. The National Art Gallery has other venues around Prague. Next door in front of the Tyn Cathedral is the Gallery of Prague with a permanent exhibition of Dali, Mucha and Warhol. This is well worth the visit because it has 3 floors of lithographs, screen prints, drawings and photographic documentation dedicated to each artist.

Kinsky Palace

Gallery of Art Prague

North of the city centre across the Vtara River is the DOX Centre of Contemporary Art and the Trade Fair Palace. Both can be reached by tram or train or around a 3 km walk.

The DOX centre has a fantastic temporary exhibition 'Big Bang Data' on digital data and the Internet, with pinstallations elsewhere combining video and sculpture. The highlight of the gallery is the wooden airship fixed to the roof. You can access it with an admission ticket and climb inside via a staircase. Inside is tiered seating because the airship is tilted downwards.

Roof of the DOX museum and access to the airship

Inside the air ship

Out in the cafe rooftop garden is a man stuck in the wall

The Trade Fair Palace is a contemporary art museum with temporary exhibitions of visiting artists and permanent exhibitions of Czech artists, as well as the permanent collection of 19th and 20th Century art. 

The main attraction for the next 6 months is Ai Wei Wei's 'Law of the Journey' based on the plight of refugees. Considering being a refugee himself, Ai Wei Wei experienced first hand what it was like to be a refugee arriving by boat by going on a journey himself. The installation combines photos of him and his encounters with refugees, video of him on a refugee boat and the humongous sculpture of a life raft filled with 'people' all made from rubber.

The scale of the work is evident from the people standing below and it really impacts you when you walk into the huge space like the Turbine Hall at the Tate.

Quotes written by various people, in particular Franz Kafka

Life jackets under a glass sphere that emphasises the message of survival

Huge figures on the ground as if in the water reaching for help.

Ai Wei Wei on the life raft.

Else where in the gallery, Ai Wei Wei had other works focusing on ceramics.

Sunflower Seeds

Ceramic bone remnants. He also had a gigantic snake made from childrens backpacks.

Other works in the gallery included:

Furniture and timber from which they were carved covered with hooks

Ground floor installation with water, lasers and a vibrating mirrored wall that made the whole thing shiver.

The Mucha Gallery in the main part of town had a small scale e hi it ion of lithographic posters, paintings, drawings and a 30 minute video of his life as an artist. The shop wasn't too bad either, but could have had a bigger range of merchandise.