They took something that no one else wanted, added their own expertise, and came up with a completely unique concept—and that’s how this gallery in Ostrava was born.
Although Czechia has been doing pretty well lately with the reuse of old factory buildings for art everywhere (we last reported here on the conversion of a power plant in Trutnov), Ostrava is slowly turning from a former industrial town into the region’s cultural hub. It is the third largest city in Czechia, and although it was founded in the Middle Ages, its real heyday came in the 19th century, when coal mining and metallurgy attracted crowds of people. Today, however, it is undergoing a period of transformation to build a contemporary city on the old industrial ruins, just as this former gas power plant has been transformed into a concert hall.
The latest addition to the list of renovations is the Plato City Gallery of Contemporary Art, a 19th-century building with a literally bloody past, formerly a slaughterhouse. It served its original function until the 1960s, after which it was used as a parking garage and warehouse. However, decades of neglect have left it severely damaged, with parts of it collapsing due to inadequate renovation and lack of restoration. In the 1990s, it was finally listed as a historical monument, but it had to wait until 2017 before modernization could finally take place. Then, an international competition for design firms was launched, which was won by the Polish KWK Promes.
Founder Robert Konieczny and his team decided to show rather than conceal the complex’s turbulent past, so the soot-stained bricks were preserved and stabilized rather than demolished and covered up. A section of concrete contrasting with the original has been put up in place of the collapsed south wing, just as the gates, which had been left open by the time, have been sealed with cement to mark the intervention. The interior also follows the minimalist–industrial line in terms of color and materials. Everything is designed with a purpose: nothing is there just for show, each element provides the gallery with flexible, usable spaces for curators and artists to explore.
Plato City Gallery of Contemporary Art | Web | Instagram | Facebook
Source: Wallpaper
Photos: Jakub Certowicz and Juliusz Sokołowski
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