Our Artist Residency program is a continuation of our long-term exhibition programming based in (re)thinking the space of the Palmovka Synagogue. Residencies allow artists to react to the fluidity of the space, as well as foster collaboration between artists, curators, and the local, diverse community in the specific urban location of Palmovka.
Each of our residents will be looking at their own, specific experience of the space, its history, and its current context. While formally and contentually varied, our residencies converge within the contexts of relating to one’s landscape/environment, questions of care, sensitivity, and social responsibilities.
Artist residencies 2026
The artistic practice of Dagmar Šubrtová consists of a creative dialogue with the realities of both natural and urban environments. Through a tender reading in the memory-caches of individual loci, she uncovers powerful themes, which she makes visible using a wide spectrum of materials and specific techniques. The historical character of the Palmovka Synagogue and its surroundings create a compelling environment, which allows the themes the author has been developing long-term to resonate — for example the temporality of a space, memory strata, transformative processuality, ultraspaces, or the mysteries of personal change.
The curator of this project is Iva Mladičová.
DAGMAR ŠUBRTOVÁ / 1. 3.–2. 4. 2026
SAVKA MARENIĆ / 20. 8.–14. 9. 2026
The project for Libeň synagogue stems from a long-term research project and interest of Savka Marenić in the relations between architecture, public space, and people who dwell in it. The goal of the project is a site-specific intervention that will connect the historically significant structure of the synagogue with its current environment in Palmovka. The main principles of the artist’s practice that will interplay lie in material-focused work and working with the local community.
Palmovka is inhabited by its residents, daily attendees of its schools and places of work, once-in-a-while crowds visiting Palmovka for its cultural events, as well as houseless people, for whom the proximity of the metro offers a respite. Hence, Palmovka is a crossroads for communities that often do not meet, but pass by each other in the immediate vicinity of the synagogue.
The curator of this project is Zuzana Šklíbová.
MAGDALÉNA MANDERLOVÁ A LIBOR STANĚK / 20. 10.–14. 11. 2026
The project of Magdaléna Manderlová and Libor Staněk is a participative artistic research and sound installation created for the specific topographical and historical context of the Libeň synagogue. The project is based in recognizing the place as a bearer of memory and its significant religious role, it ties into the the ethos of temporary autonomous zones with authentic cultural programming, preserves the local focus, and, simultaneously, situates the project in contemporary global politics. Manderlová and Staněk respect the cultural-historical strata of the space of the synagogue, while being present in the current questions regarding the genocide in Gaza. They view this duality through the perspective of productive limitation.
The goal of the project is not providing political commentary, nor are its ambitions those of understanding or mutual empathy, but it is looking to create a language and situations, where people can find new ways of communicating through embodied experiences and listening in. The installation has an ambition of opening a space, where history and the current era cross in the form of a shared encounter, which allows for a sensitive perception of painful topics, and finding common experience where rational discussion or irrational argument fail.
The curator of this project is Jakub Frank.
* The curator and the artists confirmed their contribution to the programme with the understanding that they have the full right to step away in the case the independence of their artistic expression should be limited, or in the case they come to recognise that their participation in the project is in conflict with their ethical convictions.
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