Oldřich Bystřický

3.4 PRO-STORY: The Story behind the Interactive Studios (Paper)

Oldřich Bystřický – National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

Ida Muráňová – National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

Veronika Výprachtická – National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract:

What forms can a space that enables a connection with art on a non-formal and informal level take? The Open STUDIO is a space within an exhibition in which interactivity and play are the basis for educational activities that broaden the viewing experience of children and adults and deepen the contexts of the exhibition. It is a territory with rules and possibilities beyond the exhibition itself. Using diverse examples of interactive zones at the National Gallery Prague, we will focus on how the different roles of those who create the interactive zones influence the form of the environment. Where does the practice of contemporary artists overlap with the unique practice of art educators? This paper will present three projects: Eva Koťátková’s exhibition My Body is Not an Island, ATLAS – a Creative Studio and Laboratory of Associative Dreaming, and the studio space for the exhibition École de Paris: Artists from Bohemia and Interwar Paris. How are such environments created and what influences the realization of the interactive zones? How are such spaces presented outside and inside the gallery? And what impact do they have on the audience? The paper will also present partial outcomes of research on these spaces regarding the development of cultural literacy.