Franz Kafka Museum

Brigata

The exhibition "The City of K. Franz Kafka and Prague", on view in the unique space of Hergetova cihelna on Malá Strana (Lesser Town) bank of the river Vltava, has toured the world successfully. It originated in 1999 in Barcelona - a city favourable to art, in which the sternness of the grey Romanesque churches of the early Middle Ages complements the manifold colours of Joan Miró's statues. The Catalonian centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona presented it as the third exhibition (together with Dublin of James Joyce and Lisbon of Fernando Pessoa( in a series of monumental expositions devoted to these towns brought to fame by these world-renowned writers. Their organizer is Juan Insua with a group of collaborators. The success of the exhibition in Barcelona led to its being displayed again in 2002 in the Jewish Museum in New York, where it was received with extraordinary enthusiasm. Subsequently, appeals were sent to Prague from New York so that the city where Kafka was born could also participate in the organizing of the exhibition.

The idea to stage the exhibition in Prague came about while the slow was taking place in Barcelona, however, it could not be accomplished due to the lack of financial resources. Finally, the concept came to existence when a company determined to carry out the challenge was found. This could only happen due to the interplay of many factors. For instance, never before had it been possible to create an exhibition emphasising the influence of Czech context on Kafka's life and work, to incorporate Czech locations into the project and to present the reception of Kafka's work by the Czech people. The Czech contribution, in spite of the unfavourable political situation of the past regime and the language barrier, was especially an area that had not been sufficiently recognized and explored abroad.

The exhibition "The City of K. Franz Kafka and Prague", differs from the majority of the numerous exhibitions focused on the theme of Kafka, which mostly aim at presenting relevant documents. By contrast, this exhibition has documents as its starting point and uses them to call up a metaphoric reflection of Kafka's life and work. The exhibition consists of two parts. The fisrt one, called Existencial space, categorizes Kafka's life events as well as the influence the environment in which Kafka's work reflects the intricate process of transformation of the physical reality of Prague and Kafka's life into a metaphoric image. The exhibiton revives the photographs of people and places as well as manuscripts and books in the engeniously planned installations which employ the most modern audio-visual technologies. Here, a word, an image, light and music combine in a symphonic unity. Morover, the second part contains eight essays by distinguished Kafka scholars.  The concept of the exhibition is described in a representative catalogue in three languages (Czech, German and English) which you can buy in the shop, situated right in the former Hergetova cihelna. The shop offers a complete range of publications of the work of Franz Kafka, biographical books about Franz Kafka, souvenirs such as postcards, photos, calendars, mugs and much more.