Prague Market kicks off 2022 cultural season with Worlds of Czech Animation

The City of Prague is continuing efforts to transform Prague Market, a former Holešovice slaughterhouse and (since 1983) marketplace. After years of legal disputes, the city has taken over operations of the long-neglected venue and launched extensive plans to reinvent the space as a Prague 7 cultural hub.

Despite pandemic restrictions, more than 150,000 people visited cultural events at Prague market in 2021. This year, a significantly larger program that includes some high-profile concerts and festivals hopes to attract even more visitors.

In 2022, the cultural season at Prague Market will begin with an exhibition titled Worlds of Czech Animation, which focuses on 75 years of acclaimed Czech animators. The exhibit has been put together by the same Prague team behind recent exhibits dedicated to Tim Burton and 30 years of Pixar.

The exhibition presents works from some of the Czech Republic's most acclaimed animators like Jiří Trnka and Hermína Týrlová, special effects wiz Karel Zeman (who has his own permanent museum in the city center), and surrealist Jan Švankmajer, whose stop-motion films have won international acclaim.

It also covers contemporary animators like Michaela Pavlátová, whose feature My Sunny Maad won the 2021 Annecy festival, and Daria Kascheeva, who won a Student Oscar for her film Daughter in 2019.

“Czech animation has a long tradition and has received worldwide acclaim, especially in recent years," Prague Deputy Mayor of Pavel Vyhnánek, who has been responsible for developing the cultural scene at Prague Market, says in a press release.

"We are very happy that we found a suitable location for the exhibition at Prague Market, which will present its principles, techniques, and technologies in an interactive and entertaining way. Projects of this type and quality help us achieve our goal of making Prague Market a vibrant place where Praguers of different age groups can meet."  

The World of Czech Animation exhibition is curated by artist and animator Jan Bubeníček, whose film Even Mice Belong in Heaven was nominated for a European Oscar last year. The exhibition includes special "jukeboxes" where spectators can watch animated films, a children's corner, and a café and shop.

Worlds of Czech Animation is already open in Hall 17 at Czech market, and will be presented through July. Hall 17 is a newly-renovated area of Prague Market designed to host larger long-term exhibitions and events.

"In addition to Hall 13, which opened last year and caters mostly to short-term projects, we are pleased that we can host more space-consuming and time-consuming projects after the unification of interiors in Hall 17, such as last year's Forman Brothers' Imaginarium or Worlds of Czech Animation," says Prague Market Program Director Michal Tošovský.

"During the second half of 2022, we will free up this space for short-term events to accommodate other types of projects, but we will return to the longer-term exhibition program for Hall 17 next year."

At other areas of Prague Market, indoor and outdoor event are also in the works. These include food festivals dedicated to Asian cuisine and Balkan food, as well as craft Czech breweries. Long-term events such as the MINT fashion market and Mercedes-Benz Prague Fashion Week will also return to Prague Market in 2022.

Now in its third year, a street food zone with food trucks and a regular music performances will also return to Prague Market.

In April, the newly-renovated Hall 13 will host a concert from Czech musician Tomáš Klus as part of his latest tour. The hall will also host the first edition of a new festival and market dedicated to digital technology in July.

"I firmly hope that, as opposed to the past two years, event organizers will no longer be forced to cancel their plans and festivals of all tastes and colors will regularly bring Prague Market to life on the weekends," says Tošovský.