Recreating Palác Elektrických Podniků

Covered in glass and yellowing frost-resistant tiles and facing a busy main road, Palác Elektrických podniků at Bubenská 1 in Holešovice seems like anything but the center of a thriving artistic community.

For most of the public, Designblok 2010 offered the first chance to get a look inside the building. While the paternoster lifts were a huge hit with attendees, most were also impressed by the spaciousness and light of the building's interior. Palác Elektrických podniků has even caught the attention of filmmakers, including Jan Hřebejk, who featured the building in his 2011 film Innocence.

The building was originally designed as a modern office block. According to a brochure from the time, the designers were "working in the spirit of modern architecture ... working on a new form of living, on the character of a new person, who demands space, light, air, and rejects gloom and confinement or traditional planning."

All of this was designed to inspire employees of the First Republic to work efficiently. But Palác Elektrických podniků's architects probably never expected their bold experiment in Functionalism would one day house nearly 100 businesses and 25 artists.

One of these businesses is Divus, publisher of the art magazine Umělec, among other arts-based ventures. Ivan Mečl, director of Divus, tells The Prague Post that "this building has magic" thanks in part to its antique layout.

"As soon as you move in, you see something is really fucked up. In a good way. It's not just because of its unbelievable architecture. It's a technical miracle from '35. What is actually working is the technology from '35. The technologies implemented later don't work," he says.

Divus has put the building's open atmosphere to good use. Apart from publishing Umělec, Divus hosts the Prager Kabarett and uses Palác Elektrických podniků for exhibitions, such as a recent photography show by Anglo-Polish artist Pav Mxski. The group plans to open a bookstore and café in the near future.

Palác Elektrických podníků isn't just home to businesses, but also houses several working artists, including Patricie Fexová. At the moment, Fexová is working on what she calls a sculpture. She has painted nudes onto canvases that will be then sewn to form a costume. The two models for the paintings will then wear "themselves," and Fexová will film them.

"I feel good here. This is the best studio I've ever had," she says.

What appeals most to artists in Palác Elektrických podniků is the daylight that comes through the large windows. It is this aspect of the building's design that artists have best exploited. When viewed from above, the building resembles a square pretzel, allowing light to enter all sides. The building's foyer also affords a welcome opportunity to meet other artists away from the solitude of the studio, Fexová says.

"Having a lot of artists nearby helps a lot," she adds. "I would feel lost if I had a studio somewhere with no artists around because it's lonely work. It helps if someone comes and sees what you're working on."

Evžen Šimera is another artist who works in the building. He doesn't consider himself a typical painter but says he works in a "scientific way," experimenting with and testing approaches to painting.

"I don't use brushes to express internal feelings," he says. "My view or thoughts about art itself will be in the painting. I'm not telling stories about my life. I'm telling stories about some concept."

Like most of the artists at Palác Elektrických podniků, Šimera commented on the unique light in the building, which allows him to work freely throughout the day.

"They did a great job here. This way with the light. You have many glass bricks allowing in light," he says. "I see this building like it's glowing from the inside to the outside."

Other benefits Šimera mentioned are the central location and that the owners of the building, Orco, are renting it out at a reasonable price.

Of course, the same exacting eye Šimera brings to his work also finds fault.  

"The energy of this building is a little bit crooked, like after an earthquake," he says in reference to mismatched walls and doors added in the 1990s. "It's like in a forest. Something falls down, and something else grows."

Several new projects are in the works for Palác Elektrických podniků, including Galerie Laboratorio, which opened this spring. One of the founders of the new gallery, Klara Urlichová, said the building itself was part of the appeal.

 "My colleague Jolanta Trojak came with the idea. She used to admire the functionalistic architecture of Palác Elektrických podniků from her friend's balcony. She remembers they were complaining about the sad view of the 'haunted house' with no inhabitants, no lights in its windows," she says. "As everybody knows, the Prague artistic scene is one big family, and the creative energy they concentrate resuscitated Bubenská 1."

Ryan Scott can be reached at
features@praguepost.com