{"id":10586,"date":"2025-09-11T01:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T23:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/?p=10586"},"modified":"2026-02-09T13:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:00:52","slug":"epo1-gallery-in-trutnov-industrial-space-meets-contemporary-czech-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/epo1-gallery-in-trutnov-industrial-space-meets-contemporary-czech-art\/","title":{"rendered":"EPO1 Gallery in Trutnov: Industrial Space Meets Contemporary Czech Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today, I\u2019d love to share an experience with you\u2014one that absolutely thrilled me. I visited EPO1 Gallery in Trutnov, Eastern Bohemia, a place I had been hearing glowing reviews about for quite some time. If you are learning Czech<\/a>, this is a perfect trip to combine language learning with culture.<\/strong><\/p>

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Trutnov is a charming town nestled at the foothills of the Krkono\u0161e Mountains, home to the Czech Republic\u2019s oldest and most visited national park. So chances are you\u2019ll find yourself heading there at some point for summer hiking or winter sports. For students learning Czech in the Czech Republic,<\/strong> this area offers a great opportunity to discover Czech culture<\/strong> while exploring nature. If that\u2019s the case, I wholeheartedly recommend making a stop\u2014or better yet, carving out time\u2014for a visit to this gallery.<\/p>

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The gallery is located in a former power plant that had been left to decay for many years\u2014like many industrial buildings in our region. In 2018, the Kasper family purchased the building, and after four years of careful and respectful renovation, they opened what is now the largest contemporary art gallery in the Czech Republic. Their efforts earned them several architectural awards.<\/p>

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From the beginning, they\u2019ve worked closely with curator Jan Kunze, who gave the gallery a clear artistic vision and continues to serve as its director. Today, EPO1 offers over 3,400 square meters of exhibition space, showcasing both solo exhibitions by Czech artists and thematic group shows, often featuring artists from across Central Europe.<\/p>

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Patrik H\u00e1bl and Jan Kunze at the exhibition Eyes Between Mountains in EPO1 Gallery \u2013 a cultural connection for anyone learning Czech through local art and creative spaces.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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This year\u2019s summer exhibition block opened on May 11 and runs until October 6, 2025. Let me take you on a little imaginary tour of what you can experience there.<\/p>

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In the vast turbine hall, the first exhibition you’ll encounter is called “The Fragility and Strength of Fibre,” a retrospective of the lifelong work of Eva Damborsk\u00e1, an elder-generation artist known for her sculptures made of textiles, threads, paper, and fine wire. The ethereal installation gives her work a dreamlike, almost otherworldly quality. “Her work carries traces of contemplation, care, and meditative repetition, in which a quiet strength is hidden.”<\/p>

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In the second part of the turbine hall, you\u2019ll find the exhibition “Eyes Between Mountains” by mid-career artist Patrik H\u00e1bl, who regularly exhibits internationally. His painting is deeply influenced by Asian aesthetics, and he uses techniques like dripping and pouring paint to create large-scale works. In this space, his massive 25-meter scrolls hang from the ceiling, creating a sense of immersion. A new element in his work is also on display here: 64 portraits of women arranged in the center of the hall, reminiscent of a Gothic altarpiece or a cathedral of art.<\/p>

“The space stops being merely a gallery hall\u2014it becomes a painting we step into.”<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Artist Patrik H\u00e1bl in front of his monumental portrait installation at EPO1 Gallery \u2013 a cultural experience to inspire those learning Czech through immersive art and language.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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For anyone studying Czech, exhibitions like this can also be a unique way to learn new Czech words related to art and culture <\/strong>\u2014something we often practice in our Czech courses<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

And that\u2019s only the beginning! In the next part, we\u2019ll step beyond the turbine hall to discover three more fascinating exhibitions that will take us from the shadows of the underworld to the playful dialogue between industrial heritage and contemporary art.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, I\u2019d love to share an experience with you\u2014one that absolutely thrilled me. I visited EPO1 Gallery in…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,1],"tags":[56,58,57,59],"class_list":["post-10586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-uncategorized","tag-czech-art","tag-epo1","tag-learn-czech","tag-trutnov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10906,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10586\/revisions\/10906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarisschool.cz\/cs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}