2022 Prague, Czechia
ICAMT 48th Annual Conference – Prague, 22-26 of August 2022
From August 20 to 28, 2022, ICOM held its General Conference in Prague, and on that occasion, ICAMT held its 48th Annual Conference by presenting a stimulating program. The conference was also an opportunity for ICAMT board members to meet for the first time after the 2019 elections and the pandemic. A board meeting was held to wrap up the previous three years, discuss and organise the Board elections, settle the agenda and plan the following 2023-2025 term.
T H E C O N F E R E N C E
JOINT SESSION
Photo: Joint session. Diana Pardue (chair of DRMC) and Nana Meparishvili (chair of ICAMT)
The first day was dedicated to a meaningful joint session with DRMC – The Disaster Resilient Museums International Committee. The theme was Museum Techniques and Risk Management, and the two committees went in-depth on Ukraine’s cultural heritage at risk thanks to the detailed presentation of the Keynote Speaker Vasyl Rozhko (UA).
CONFERENCE THEMES
Sustainability
The urgency of climate change is no longer in question. How can the museum sector contribute to the international commitments from COP 21? Architecture, building refurbishments, heating and ventilation systems, exhibition design: every part of the museum field is relevant. But ecological sustainability is just one piece of the bigger puzzle. For this session, we selected presentations focusing on social and financial sustainability on an institutional and societal level. It was an opportunity to discover initiatives and innovations that foreshadow the museum of tomorrow.
Photo: Sustainability Session
Exhibition Design and Digital Interventions in Museum Architecture
Where does the building stop and the exhibition begin? As immersive digital installations become an ever more significant part of the exhibition design, new opportunities emerge to shape the relationship between the museum building and the displays that it houses. Augmented, virtual and mixed reality place the visitor, the objects and the building right into contexts that otherwise would have to be merely imagined. Projections on walls, roofs, floors and architectural details can make the building part of the exhibition in ways that enhance the museum visit and highlight the architectural qualities. In this session, ICAMT dived into contemporary examples of digital presentations that merge with the building, create new experiences and invite the visitor to interact with data and information physically and digitally.
Photo: Multimedia exhibition “Moments of History”, Prague National Museum
New Museums completed during the COVID-19 pandemic
The museum world was closed due to COVID-19. It didn’t mean that the projects stopped, not at all. During this session, we saw new projects of beautiful museum architecture. Size didn’t matter. Everything from a brand-new museum, a museum expansion, a renovation, new studios, galleries or storage facilities to an exciting, revamped exhibition hall was welcomed.
Photo: DOX – Centre for Contemporary Art
This topic was discussed during the off-site meeting day in DOX – Centre for Contemporary Art. ICAMT session started with a presentation about the venue by Michaela Šilpochová, followed by a brilliant speech on the Museum of Etruscan Art – Fondazione Rovati (Milan, Italy), given by the invited keynote speaker, Arch. Mario Cucinella, author of the museum’s outstanding project.
Photo: Museum of Etruscan Art – Fondazione Rovati (Milan, Italy), presented by Arch. Mario Cucinella
The committee members gave five more presentations, and after the morning sessions, Mrs. Anežka Horáčková from DOX offered a special guided tour, and members had time to visit ongoing exhibitions.
From DOX to CAMP – Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning. ICAMT members took a ride at the historical tram kindly offered by the Prague General Conference organizers, had an official welcome and attended a lecture about Karel Prager. Later, they visited the exhibition of the architectural competition about the new theatre in Prague.
Photos: Exhibition of the Architectural Competition / Karel Prager and the New Prague Theatre
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Besides Vasyl Rozhko with his speech “Ukraine’s cultural heritage at risk”, we welcomed Keynote speakers such as Michal Stehlík (CZ), Josef Kortan (CZ) and Martin Souček (CZ) with the presentation of the impressive multimedia exhibition “Moments of History”, placed at the Prague National Museum. Finally, Arch. Mario Cucinella, the author of the project of the new Milanese “Museum of Etruscan Art – Fondazione Luigi Rovati”, unveiled to us, in detail, the whole project.
Photo: Back row, left to right: Michal Stehlik, Martin Souček, Timothy Ventimiglia, Nana Meparishvili, Umut Durmus. In the front row:: Ellu Karyati and Chia-Wei WEN
EXCURSION DAY
A Retro Train with coaches that were serving as a transport for several Czechoslovakia presidents took us to Brno to visit examples of Art Nouveau and Functionalist architecture such as Jurkovič Villa (1906) today the house of the Moravian Gallery, Villa Löw-Beer (1903) built based on a design by the Viennese architect Alexander Neumann, and Villa Tugendhat by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1930), since 2001 a UNESCO Heritage site.
Photo: Retro Train – President’s Meeting coach
Photo: Jurkovič Villa (1906)
Photo: Villa Löw-Beer (1903)
Photo: Villa Tugendhat (1930)