GASK celebrates sixty years with a new permanent exhibition

On Saturday, 29 June 2024, the Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region will present its new permanent exhibition, whose conceptual approach follows on the successful States of Mind / Beyond the Image, winner of the national Gloria Musaealis award in 2015. Running through the exhibition like a red thread is the story of the hero’s journey, which guides visitors THROUGH THE LABYRINTH (as the new permanent exhibition is called). Working with this archetypal format, the exhibition invites the wanderer (the gallery visitor) to experience various forms of learning, self-discovery or identification as they encounter unique works of art. This exceptional gallery project is the result of close collaboration between GASK’s curators, Learning Centre and Collection Management. Through the Labyrinth is being opened to the public as part of the gallery’s celebrations of its 60th anniversary.

The new permanent exhibition, conceived as an invitation to wander Through the Labyrinth, was loosely inspired by the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces by the American ethnologist and religious scholar Joseph Campbell (1904–1987), whose work explored the shared foundations of myths, fables and religious teachings. Campbell described the hero’s journey as a ‘monomyth’, a universal story characterised by a set dramatic structure consisting of particular stages.

The exhibition, which covers an area of nearly 1,300 m², will be a figurative journey in itself. It is split into twenty-one chapters arranged into three basic units: Challenge, Learning and Return. The atmosphere of an archetypal journey is evoked by Pavel Mrkus and Daniel Hanzlík, who collaborated on the exhibition’s architectural and visual design.

The idea behind the exhibition and its architectural and visual design is to provide an inspiring space in which visitors can feel the joy of discovering and encountering tangible works of art, intangible digital art and contemporary technologies, and also themselves as people.

The GASK Learning Centre has put together a diverse programme of accompanying events for visitors, including guided tours, art workshops for families, educational activities for schools and workshops focused on self-discovery.

The opening reception for the new permanent exhibition will be held at 4pm on 29 June and will feature a concert by the band Třaskavá směs, two of whose members – František Skála and Petr Nikl – have works included in the exhibition. The evening’s opening band is Chicxulub Survivors.

The exhibition is held under the patronage of Mgr. Petra Pecková, Governor of the Central Bohemian Region. The project has been made possible thanks to financial support from the Central Bohemian Region and the Czech Ministry of Culture.