Memory of Touch Opens a Dialogue Across Generations at Kunsthalle Praha

Memory of Touch: Chapter I is the first standalone exhibition project dedicated to the Kunsthalle Praha Collection. Curated by Tevž Logar in collaboration with collection curator Barbora Ropková, the project brings together modern, post-war, and contemporary works from the collection with works by six leading figures of the contemporary Czech art scene. Works by artists such as Bohumil Kubišta and Běla Kolářová enter into dialogue with those of Valentýna Janů and Roman Štětina, among others. The first chapter will be on view in Gallery 3 from 19 June to 8 October 2026.

The Kunsthalle Praha Collection currently comprises more than 2,000 artworks and focuses on key artistic developments of the 20th and 21st centuries in Central Europe within a broader international context. Alongside major representatives of Czech and Czechoslovak modernism, post-war and conceptual art, it also includes works by international artists, enabling visitors to trace cultural and historical connections across regions and generations. Although the collection has long been one of the pillars of Kunsthalle Praha’s identity, it has never been presented through a large-scale standalone exhibition project.

“We see the collection as a space for dialogue and new interpretations. Memory of Touch offers an opportunity to present it to the public in a way that connects historical works with contemporary artistic approaches and opens up new relationships between the past and the present,” says Barbora Ropková, Curator of the Kunsthalle Praha Collection.

The exhibition was developed under the direction of Slovenian curator Tevž Logar, who places selected works from the collection in dialogue with works by contemporary Czech artists Jakub Choma, Lukáš Hofmann, Igor Hosnedl, Valentýna Janů, Marie Lukáčová, and Roman Štětina. The project explores fragility and vulnerability as both aesthetic and social strategies. Unexpected encounters emerge between avant-garde experiments, post-war artistic responses to censorship and repression, and contemporary works reflecting the uncertainties of today’s world.

The exhibition’s title, which emerged during a conversation with invited artist Valentýna Janů in her studio, suggests that the past is not merely a historical fact, but something that persists in materials, gestures, bodies, and memories. Rather than presenting a linear narrative of art history, the exhibition creates a network of relationships, echoes, and associations in which works from different generations, media, and historical periods enter into dialogue.

“At the outset, I conceived the exhibition along two parallel trajectories. The first emerged through a close engagement with the collection itself; the second unfolded through studio visits and conversations with artists of a younger generation. For a time, these paths developed independently, each generating its own questions, affinities, and points of inquiry. Gradually, however, they began to converge, revealing unexpected resonances between historical works and contemporary artistic practices. What eventually emerged from this encounter is Memory of Touch, presented in two chapters, in which the invited artists activate and recontextualize selected works from the collection, opening them to new readings, relationships, and forms of engagement,” adds exhibition curator Tevž Logar.

The exhibition is structured around several thematic clusters. In Embodiment, visitors encounter Lukáš Hofmann’s fragile blown-glass objects, which emphasise the relationship between the body, movement, and space. Subtlety brings together works by Jiří Kovanda, Heinz Mack, Marie Rychlíková, and Ira Svobodová with Roman Štětina’s video work, drawing attention to small gestures, subtle shifts, and forms of presence and absence. In Threshold, Igor Hosnedl’s paintings create new connections with works by Emil Filla, Jindřich Štyrský, Jitka Kolínská, and Theodor Pištěk, opening a space between figuration, ornament, and abstraction. Intimacy links works by Agnes Denes, Běla Kolářová, Eva Koťátková, Bohumil Kubišta, and Ján Mančuška with an installation by Valentýna Janů, which explores identity, intimacy, and social expectations. In Distortion, works by Zbyněk Baladrán, Milan Knížák, Jiří Kolář, Haroon Mirza, and Kurt Schwitters enter into dialogue with Jakub Choma’s installation, opening questions of transformation, technology, and the relationship between body and object. The exhibition further extends beyond the gallery space through a new work by Marie Lukáčová presented in the foyer of Kunsthalle Praha and through her intervention in the exhibition catalogue.

Memory of Touch is conceived as a two-part project. While Chapter I focuses on fragility as a form of resistance and sensitivity, Chapter II, opening in November 2026, will develop these themes from a new perspective.

To accompany both chapters, Kunsthalle Praha will publish a bilingual Czech-English catalogue in February 2027. The publication will situate works from the Kunsthalle Praha Collection within both local and international contexts while further expanding on the themes of the exhibition. It will feature contributions by Ivana Goossen, Christelle Havranek, Tevž Logar, Pavlína Pudil, and Barbora Ropková.

The exhibition is accompanied by a public programme focusing on collecting practices, curatorial work, and contemporary artistic production. Visitors can look forward to guided tours with curator Tevž Logar, collection curator Barbora Ropková, and participating artists, as well as talks dedicated to collecting, collection-building strategies, and the care and transportation of artworks. The programme also includes studio visits with Roman Štětina, Valentýna Janů, and Marie Lukáčová. During Prague Art Week, Lukáš Hofmann will present a performance exploring the relationship between body and space.

The programme also includes a Summer School for Teachers, a multi-day educational programme exploring the potential of contemporary art in the classroom and offering new approaches to interdisciplinary learning and art interpretation.

Visitors under the age of 26 can obtain free membership, which includes free admission to all Kunsthalle Praha exhibitions.

Kunsthalle Praha thanks its partners (MY CLINIC, The Pudil Family Foundation, Dentons).

Memory of Touch: Chapter I (The Kunsthalle Praha Collection in Dialogue)
19/6 2026—8/10 2026
Gallery 3
Curator: Tevž Logar