Most of the time it is overwhelmed by crowds of tourists who are eager to explore all its parts. This time, however, Prague Castle will focus on our people. And that’s thanks to the Signal Festival, which in its 12th year will light up Hradčany for the first time. The unconventional spectacle starts already on Thursday evening. There will be a chance to view art installations or video mapping until Sunday.
In Hradčany, the creators of the light festival prepared one of the two routes of Signal, whose media partner is also CzechCrunch. The route around Prague Castle is two kilometers long, on which people will be able to view seven installations and one video mapping. For the first time ever, it leans against the building of the Archbishop’s Palace on Hradčanské náměstí. It will be accessible for free, it is also a public space, so everyone who is interested can get here.
Videomapping was created by digital creator Filip Hodas, called Eternal Recurrence, and plays with the border between fiction and reality. The art installation is accompanied by music by DJ Rida. Video mapping will start every fifteen minutes on Hradčanské náměstí, from seven o’clock in the evening until midnight.
The route through Hradčany starts already at the Riding Hall of the Prague Castle. There, visitors will find a colorful projection made up of elements of Prague architecture. It was created by the Korean artist Seohyo, who was primarily inspired by the principles of tapestry weaving, the traditional decoration of Prague Castle and the patterns of mosaic tiles. Like other installations on the route, it is part of the so-called Gallery Zone. People can get into it with either Signal Plus or Signal VIP tickets.
With tickets, people will also be able to view the installation in the Šternber Palace, which is the work of Jiří Příhoda. Here he presents monumental sculptural works. The artist partially lives in New Mexico, so his work is also inspired by things that the common eye cannot see, but sometimes we manage to capture them in our space. It includes a video projection on the background of the statue, which resembles a flying saucer.
In the Schwarzenberg Palace, there is an interactive projection by Michael Bielický and Kamila B. Richter. It is special in that people can control it themselves using the rudder in the middle of the courtyard and thus change the elements on the walls. The route then ends in the Kunsthalle Praha gallery under the Castle, where an exhibition by the British group UVA can be seen. This is also known thanks to the collaboration with the music group Massive Attack. The exhibition is called Strange Attractions and explores the fine line between order and chaos.
Those who want to go for free can visit the Southern Gardens on the route in addition to the video mapping. These are usually a spectacle in themselves, but this time they are decorated with a large mirrored ball created by the Spanish studio SpY. It might not seem like it, but it is inspired by the Egyptian pyramids. The installation is based on elements of mathematics and symbolism that are present not only in the pyramids, but in the entire classical Egyptian culture. The proportions of an object refer to the pi number hidden in the geometry. The surface of the sphere mirrors its surroundings and also refers to the role of the circular mirror in Egyptian symbolism, where it was associated with the sun. The Southern Gardens were able to become part of the route mainly thanks to the cooperation with Prague Castle.
In total, people will be able to discover 22 art installations during the festival. This year, the festival also includes the first edition of the Signal Forum networking conference, during which several lectures on technology, new media and science will take place at the Center for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP).
It will also be possible to walk the second of the routes, which will take you through the center of the metropolis after the installations. Part of it is the second video mapping at the Municipal Library on Mariánské náměstí. He will show a show by the Spanish-Danish duo Desilence called The Rythm of the Ocean.
