Out & About: Plato Contemporary Art Gallery

The opening of PLATO’s revolving walls will launch an exhibition that transcends them, and the authors’ lecture which they will conclude in the adjacent Bauhaus building. The authors of the project Plato Contemporary Art Gallery, will talk about how the idea of democratising art, underlying the architectural concept of this redevelopment, took on a whole new meaning in the process of its creation and operation.

Plato Contemporary Art Gallery by Robert Konieczny KWK Promes

By saving a historic building and turning it into an art gallery, we have introduced a solution that makes art more democratic. By rotating the walls in an unusual way, it goes outside the building. We transformed the space around the gallery, which had previously been contaminated, into a biodiverse art park for the benefit of local residents.
The realisation is the result of an international competition to transform a dilapidated old slaughterhouse in the Czech city of Ostrava into the PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art. The walls of the slaughterhouse were dilapidated and battered in many places by huge holes. The soot-reddened brickwork bore witness to the city’s industrial history. We took these deficiencies at face value and added another layer to the history of the building, which is under conservation protection. We were allowed to preserve the character of the soiled brick and the windows, and to fill in the openings in the walls with contemporary material while retaining the old ornamentation of the brick walls. We also used the adopted principle of recreating all non-existent elements of the building from micro-concrete to rebuild the collapsed section of the slaughterhouse.

Guided tour: 29 May / Guided tour: 17:00 | Lecture: 18:00 CET

Meeting point:
Plato Contemporary Art Gallery,
Porážková 26,
Ostrava
Meeting Location

◾Guided tour and Lecture with authors of the project
◾In collaboration with Plato Contemporary Art Gallery

Language: Czech & Polish

✓ No registration required

Out & About 2024

“Out & About. Discovering Architecture. EUmies Awards 2024” will take place from April onwards in over 30 European places in which shortlisted works of the prize are located. Organised by Creative Europe, Fundació Mies van der Rohe and the indisputable expertise of Guiding Architects, everybody has the opportunity to know much more about buildings and public spaces in their cities or in places that they are visiting with the authors, clients and people who know them well.