(jiří macek) Since last week, one can see the Křehký by Designblok Prague exhibition in the form of a landscape in Le Colysée Lambersart Gallery in the French city of Lille and the new version of the Křehký collection in Galerie Design Vlaanderen in Brussels. Its book version is now for sale in Czech book stores. The backbone of the book consists of an interpretation of objects from the collection, taken by prominent Czech photographers such as Salim Issa, Václav Jirásek, Bára Prášilová, Dušan Tománek, and Tereza Vlčková.
The book, conceived as a pop-up picture book, continues exploring stories of objects, which the homonymous exhibition in the form of a vast landscape of Czech design (designed by Maxim Velčovský) started in 2007. The book version transfers its principle into a 2D space. Fragility, which is the fundamental key of the exhibition, referring not only to the fragility of glass and porcelain, but to the emotional level of objects in general, turns into a mosaic of surprising perspectives and experiences on paper. The selected photographers chose objects from the Křehký collection that intrigued them most and portrayed them freely. Thus, apart from a specific documentary of contemporary Czech design, readers can now hold an unusual photo album whose assignment had only one requirement – creative freedom. One walks in a landscape and discovers unexpected contexts and moments that affect him/her more than expected. One can also find stories among these images, both metaphorically and literary.
Concept and texts: Jana Zielinski and Jiří Macek; graphic design: Martina Černá; imagery, photos: Kristina Hrabětová, Salim Issa, Václav Jirásek, Bára Prášilová, Gabriel Urbánek, Dušan Tománek, Matúš Toth, Tereza Vlčková, and others.
The book is equipped with a documentation of the Křehký exhibition and a complete catalogue of the objects represented. It can be purchased, for instance, in Dox by Qubus, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, as well as www.kosmas.cz.
More about the project www.krehky.cz
Waterproof vase, design: Maxim Velčovský, photo: Bára Prášilová