OPEN CALL: Budweis Gallery Weekend
Budweis Gallery Weekend is the name of a new festival that brings visual art into homes: living rooms, gardens and front yards, or common areas of apartment buildings. Over the first weekend of October, several temporary galleries will appear in the Pražské předměstí (Prague Suburb) neighborhood – places where new neighborhood bonds can be forged, just as a new, close relationship to artworks can be found.
Alongside traditional galleries, households are places where visual art has always had its space. Paintings on the walls, sculptures, photographs, textile art, and other art forms co-create the feeling of a home and tell our personal history. Our intention is to remove art from the environment of cultural institutions, place it into intimate spaces, and thus offer the audience a new perspective and reflect together on what role art has (or can have) in our personal lives.
The gallery weekend in the neighborhood can be perceived as an act of trust, where it is possible to enter places normally accessible only to our loved ones, as an opportunity to create new social bonds at a time when it may seem that we are becoming more and more alienated from one another.
And since there are no galleries in the Pražské předměstí (Prague Suburb) neighborhood, it will first be necessary to open them: in apartments, in backyards, or perhaps in front yards.
WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We are looking for people from the Pražské předměstí (Prague Suburb) neighborhood who would be interested in opening new temporary galleries with us and opening their doors to visitors, their neighbors, and casual passersby. A gallery can be understood as a living room, a garden, a front yard, a common hallway, a cellar, or any other space that we can open up to art and visitors.
WHAT CAN PARTICIPATION OFFER YOU?
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To look at your own home differently – as a place that can be lively, shared, and open to new situations. To experience art up close, outside the gallery environment.
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To find out how it transforms when it enters an everyday space and how you and your home transform when it enters your space.
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To try what it is like to prepare your own exhibition – making decisions about what and how to show it, and giving the exhibition its own form and title.
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To meet your neighbors differently than just in the hallway or on the street – through a shared experience that can open up new conversations and relationships.
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To have the space to try, experiment, and find your own way of working with art.
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To participate in workshops and joint meetings where you can get inspired, share ideas, and gain new experiences.
And last but not least, to be a part of something that will transform your entire neighborhood and the place where you live for a few days.
HOW WILL THE PARTICIPATION WORK?
You can sign up non-bindingly until June 7 – just let us know that you are interested in the project.
In mid-June, we will gather for a joint meeting where we will comfortably go over how the whole weekend will work, what the participation entails, and how everyone can set their own level of involvement.
Only then will you decide whether you want to go all in. As part of the exhibitions, we will also work with the work of Polish artist Filip Kopeć, but at the same time, there will be space to involve your own artworks or perhaps invite other artists. During September, we will meet several times for preparations – we will fine-tune the specific forms of the exhibitions, and educational workshops focused on exhibiting contemporary art will also be available for those interested.
On October 3 and 4, we will together open the first Budějovice Gallery Weekend. Throughout the preparations, the organizational team will be at your disposal to guide you through the process and help make your participation as pleasant and safe as possible. Together, we will set the rules and boundaries.
HOW TO SIGN UP
- By filling out a simple form
- By email to ptrdlouhy@gmail.com The non-binding application should include (1) name, (2) phone number, (3) a short introduction, (4) motivation for participation, (5) your availability to participate in the information meeting during the week of June 15–19.
WHO IS BEHIND EVERYTHING?
Budweis Gallery Weekend is part of the Magic Carpets project, a European platform that involves the public in artistic processes and strives to strengthen social bonds through art. In the Czech Republic, Magic Carpets is coordinated by the organization České Budějovice - European Capital of Culture 2028.
The initiator of the gallery weekend is Petr Dlouhý (born 1991); a curator and organizer working in various fields of art since 2013. He has organized numerous festivals, worked for both small and large cultural institutions and theaters, and a large part of his work is spread across various locations in the Czech Republic and abroad. Since 2026, he has been collaborating with ČB2028 on the Magic Carpets project.
CONTACT
Petr Dlouhý (initiator of gallery weekend)
📩 ptrdlouhy@gmail.com, 731 468 447
Anna Davis (project coordinator)
📩anna.davis@budejovice2028.eu, 776 146 768
