Exhibitions

Exhibitions

Bechyně Castle is a prominent cultural monument built in the 16th century in the Czech Republic. With its character and refined surroundings set in a beau- tiful landscape, it is an ideal place for meeting and debating cultural heritage, its significance and modern development. Based on this heritage in 2021, we initiated a new tradition that provides an opportunity for professional, critical and creative dialogue, making use of the decentralized position of the location. 

The long-term goal is to make Bechyně Castle into a cultural destination for international exchange in the field of contemporary art and its discourse. The annual program featuring contemporary art exhibitions and a sculpture park held in cooperation with renowned gallery institutions, thematic symposia and short-term residencies will create space for independent curators, artists, gallerists and representatives of cultural institutions to meet in South Bohemia, and for the general public to view the work of leading international and Czech artists. Besides building a cultural and artistic pro- gram within the region of South Bohemia, we think and work in the supra-regional context. 

2023

The art season 2023, opening on June 3 and lasting until the end of September, is created in cooperation with curator Lucie Drdová and the leading global Galleria Continua with an excellent portfolio of established names in the contemporary art scene. The exhibition concept of the upcoming edition of the sculpture park and contemporary art exhibitions at the historical building of the granary accentuates topics linking art to the contemporary realities of the world around us. In the light of the essential socio-political events of the past and the current year, questions of human existence and integrity, human rights, and primarily freedom in many respects of the word will be addressed. 

The curatorial selection of artists explores the rich relationship between art and politics, focusing on works that are both formally innovative and politically outspoken. The thematic concept reflects the uncertain aspects of our current existence, including threats to essential traditions, institutions, and relations. Art does not operate in the field of politics and cannot stop the growth of non-democratic movements and tendencies. Yet artistic testimonies can navigate us and serve as indirect guides to our lives and our grasp of the world. 

The unique artistic practices of the selected artists – Chinese-French sculptor Chen Zhen (1955– 2000), Bulgarian conceptual artist Nedko Solakov (*1957), Italian artistic duo Ornaghi & Prestinari (Valentina Ornaghi *1986 and Claudio Prestinari *1984, working as a duo since 2009), Brazilian sculptor Ana Maria Tavares (*1985), Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova (*1981) and local representatives, including one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Czech art Jiří Kovanda (*1953) and sculptors Krištof Kintera (* 1973), Matěj Frank (*1989) and Tereza Štětinová (*1987) – revolve around subjects such as national identity, trespassing of borders, mapping, mobility, statehood, economic migration, and political and cultural alienation. Their works highlight a general approach to artmaking and a notion of art’s social function as embracing both pleasure and critical thinking. 

The central work for the sculpture park is the sculpture titled Back to Fullness, Face to Emptiness by Chinese-French artist Chen Zhen which was exhibited at Biennale Arte 2009 in Venice. The centre of the metal globe symbolizing the world (fullness), which is surrounded by chairs from various countries, features a Chinese text in red neon listing human rights. Only these and a good conscience (emptiness) can serve as a guide towards a future of hope and peace. 

The building of the granary presents the exclusive collaboration of two leading artists, providing a brilliant commentary on the world around us, whether literally in the form of sharp and witty stories, or as subtle yet smart conceptual interventions, Nedko Solakov and Jiří Kovanda. Under the title Together they will present their solo installations with mutual "inconspicuous” interventions. 

In Collaboration with:

Galleria Continua was founded in 1990 by three gallerists Mario Cristiani, Lorenzo Fiaschi and Mau- rizio Rigillo in San Gimignano, Italy. The original intention was to combine contemporary art with the rich historical legacy of the Tuscan region and its landscape. In their three decades of activity, in ad- dition to professionally mediating the work of international artists, they have initiated many projects with partners throughout the region and the country. In 2004, they opened another gallery in Beijing, followed by Les Moulins (2007), Havana (2015), Rome, Sao Paulo and Paris (2020). The gallery’s portfolio numbers over eighty names, including British sculptors Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor, conceptual artists Nedko Solakov, Daniel Buren, the couple Ilya and Emilia Kabak, and Ai Weiwei. Through their work in different parts of the world, they have expanded their collaborations to include important artists from their respective regions. 

Team

Nicole Stava runs the family company Panství Bechyně together with her sister Silvia. The main business is forestry and timber sales from the family owned 4942 hectars of forest. The jewel of the family estate is a large Renaissance castle and eight adjoining buildings, with almost 5000 square meters of exhibition spaces. From 1998, she continuously helped to develop and organize summer exhibitions at the castle granary, then the Prof. Vladimír Preclík Museum, which later became an independent art space with its own exhibition program.
Nicole studied politics and social sciences in Prague and Geneva, and subsequently the Cultural and Creative Industries Master’s programme at King’s College London. During her studies, she began to pursue a professional career in the art market. For ten years, she worked as a senior business development consultant at Christie, Manson and Woods Ltd. in Prague, Vienna and London. Since 2009, she manages the family collections of old master paintings, classic modern art, contemporary art and furniture located in Bechyně and Zurich.

Lucie Drdova is an art historian, gallerist, curator, and writer. She combines her academic expertise from the Department of Art History at Masaryk University in Brno and University of Applied Arts in Vienna, and her professional experience from European exhibition institutions such as the Museum of Modern Arts in Vienna and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
Most recently, she curated and organized Rony Plesl’s exhibition Trees Grow from the Sky included in the official program of Biennale Arte 2022 within the Collateral Events section. She is also responsible for the international gallery cooperation and curatorial concept of Contemporary Art exhibitions and Sculpture Park at Bechyně Castle in South Bohemia.
In 2012, after gaining experience with private gallery management in Berlin, she founded Lucie Drdova Gallery with a focus on contemporary art based in Prague and Brussels. She initiated non-commercial exhibition projects with partners and other professionals both in the Czech Republic and internationally. She also co-founded the Alliance of Czech Contemporary Art Galleries and its SUMO Prague initiative. Its aim is to spread awareness of the activities of Czech galleries and to strengthen the international presence of Czech visual artists.
She publishes books and catalogues, writes for newspapers and magazines, and lectures regularly. She is a co-author of several studies on the state and support of the visual art scene and museum and gallery practice for leading Czech institutions including the Ministry of Culture Czech Republic.

Past editions

2022

The 2022 edition of the Sculpture Park presented internationally renowned artists working in the field of contemporary sculpture and installation. Most of the artists, whose work is represented by the world’s leading galleries and exhibition institutions, introduced their work for the first time in the Czech context. The exhibition concept, created in collaboration with the leading Berlin-based Galerie König and art historian and gallerist Lucie Drdová, presented the successful duo Elmgreen & Dragset, Alicja Kwade, Bosco Sodi, Erwin Wurm as well as Claudia Comte, Jeppe Hein and David Zink Yi. 

Exhibiting Artists

The artist duo Michael Elmgreen (b. 1961 in Copenhagen, Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (b. 1969 in Trondheim, Norway) have been collaborating since 1995. Their work engages with questions of identity, through objects, installations, and performance. These are then placed in new contexts as a means to investigate underlying social, cultural, and political structures. Elmgreen & Dragset are represented by several private galleries worldwide. They are currently presenting a formidable show at Fondazione Prada, Milan that follows the transformation of the human body and the ways in which it is perceived. 

Elmgreen & Dragset have exhibited at numerous institutions including EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo (2020); The Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2019-2020); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2018-2019); Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2016); UCCA, Beijing (2016); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (2014); Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2013-2014); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2011); ZKM Museum of Modern Art, Karlsruhe (2010); Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (2009); Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); Tate Modern, London (2004); and Kunsthalle Zürich (2001). The pair were selected as finalists for the prestigious Hugo Boss Prize, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2000), and won the National Gallery Prize, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2002). 

Mexican artist Bosco Sodi (b. 1970 in Mexico City) is world renowned for his vibrant canvases, with a rich colour palette and exceptional haptic quality. He works with pure, natural materials that emerge on the surface of his works through his unique gestures. Despite working with organic matter, Sodi‘s approach is largely conceptual and linked to themes of human memory and the richness of symbols. Currently, Sodi is presenting a large-scale exhibition at Palazzo Vedrami Grimani as part of the current Venice Biennale. 

Sodi has exhibited widely at international institutions, such as the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2021); The Philips Co- llection, Washington, D.C. (2021); and the Royal Society of Sculptors, London, (2019). He is represented by Kasmin and Axel Vervoordt galleries. 

Claudia Comte (b. 1983 in Grancy, Switzerland) creates large-scale multimedia installations that have their origins in the observation of nature and its continuous modes of transformation. The Swiss artist uses new technologies to transform abstracted and biomorphic shapes into optical sequences and endless graphic patterns. These contain deeper reflections on climate change, ecology, and global pollution. 

Comte was the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin (2019-2021); and at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid (2021). In addition to König Galerie, Comte is also represented by Gladstone Gallery. 

Originally from Peru, the David Zink Yi (b. 1973 in Lima) moved to Berlin at an early age, where he con- tinues to live and work. His works are a critical reference of actions that thematize human identity and its transformations, including its forms of expression. Most of these take form as performance, such as cooking, recitation, dance, and texts. The artist‘s multidisciplinary practice also includes film, photography, and sculpture. 

This year his work is on display at London‘s Hayward Gallery. Previously, he has participated in the Liverpool Biennial (2021) and has exhibited at Kunstmuseum Bonn (2021); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2021); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt/ Main (2019); and Belvedere Vienna (2018). Zink Yi is also represented by Hauser & Wirth. 

Jeppe Hein (b. 1974 in Copenhagen) is known for his experimental and interactive work, combining sculptural, architectural, and technological elements, which can be characterised by their imaginative simplicity and humour. He draws on the tradition of minimalism and conceptual art. 

Hein is the subject of a major solo exhibition at Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2022). His work has been presented, among others, at the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany (2015); and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2005). Installations in public space have been realized for the Venice Biennale (2019); Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York (2015); and the Rijksmu- seum, Amsterdam (2013). 

Erwin Wurm (b. 1954 in Bruck an der Mur) is one of Austria‘s leading artists. His sculptures and ob- jects adapt the morphology of seemingly banal everyday objects, allowing him to explore the relation- ships between viewers through questions of space. 

Wurm has twice participated in the Venice Biennale. First, with an installation in Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti (2011), followed by his selection to represent the Austrian Pavilion (2017). More recently, he has had exhibitions at the Taipei Fine Arts Mu- seum (2020); Musée Cantini, Marseille (2019); K11 MUSEA, Hong Kong (2019); Vancouver Art Gallery (2019); Albertina Museum, Vienna (2018); Belvedere 21, Vienna (2017); Leopold Museum, Vienna (2017); and Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo (2017). He is also represented by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. 

Alicja Kwade (b. 1979 in Kattowitz) is a Polish artist based in Berlin for decades now. Her work deals with questions of the structures of our perceived reality and society, as well as the perception of time in immediate, everyday life. Kwade‘s practice uses employs a variety of media from constructed objects to video and photography. 

She is currently exhibiting at the i8 Grandi gallery in Marshallhouse, Reykjavík, and has participated in the Helsinki Biennial (2021); NGV Triennial (2020); Setouchi Triennial (2019); Venice Biennale (2017); and Kochi-Muziris Biennial (2016). She has also exhibited at the Hayward Gallery in London, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. In 2019, she created a monumental site-specific installation for the rooftop garden of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 

In Collaboration with

König Galerie was founded by Johann König in 2002 in Berlin. Its programme currently features forty internationally established artist, many of a younger generation. Since 2015, it has been housed in the former St. Agnes Church in Berlin‘s Kreuzberg district, whose brutalist architecture dates back to the 1960s. Subsequently, branches were opened in London, Seoul, and Vienna. 

2021