Petrohradská kolektiv z.s.
Petrohradská kolektiv is an artist-run initiative based in Prague, Czechia est. in 2015. The initiative runs its own cultural production and original dramaturgy. It stands for a meeting point of experiments and contemporary arts.
As of 2016, Petrohradská kolektiv annually invites up to ten artists from all over the world. Residency project proposals are submitted through open calls, which are then selected by a specialized committee.
The residency program is an opportunity for independent professional development, artistic exchange, networking, and experiments, and is intended for active artists, creators, and theoreticians, who desire independence and want space and technical support for working on their projects. That’s what the Petrohradská kolektiv AiR program offers in the heart of a multi-genre cultural center in Prague. The goal of the program is to create an open platform for international artistic dialogue, interconnection of different cultures, and support for emerging artists working with diverse media.
The original idea behind Petrohradská kolektiv has been making a community space for creativity and art practice, where there’s a place for both efficient working and pleasant relaxing. The main goal is to sustain a community-based, yet professional environment and to further provide it to all visitors and collaborators.
Petrohradská kolektiv organizes many cultural events within its complex. All of the residing artists get to attend these events for free.
Within the Artist in Residence program, which works in parallel with other events, there is an opportunity of collaborating with local and foreign artists and mentors from different cultural backgrounds. Thanks to that, the participating artists can actively participate in various programs of Petrohradská kolektiv.
Participation in the residential program requires communication skills in English or in Czech. Each resident is obligated to prepare a final report of their stay including a photo documentation. Participants of the AiR program of Petrohradská kolektiv are required to spend at least 75% of the duration of their stay in the place of the residency.
The stays include an author’s presentation (or its online equivalent) and an exhibition output or else. The residency must be completed within the specified period and it is not possible to interrupt it.
They provide a shared studio with a workshop with basic equipment with an area of 60 square meters, a photo/video studio, and a recording studio.
Each participant gets a private room in a 3-room apartment with a common area, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The apartment is situated on the ground floor of the Petrohradská kolektiv building.
Each project requires different technical equipment, therefore the technology needed is consulted with each artist individually.
The location where Petrohradská kolektiv is based was erected in Pragues Vršovice district by 1903. Built as a mill and a bakery for Hedivka and Karel Müller. By the end of 1920 the structure was rebuilt to house the manufacturing of chocolate goods by Korda ltd. The building was last used by an assembly workshop of Industrial Automation Plants (ZPA). Currently the building is to be demolished. In the meantime, since 2015, it's being used by the association to produce a cultural programme and a platform for young arts. Aside from the 36 studios that provide spaces for over 200 artists over the course of their operation, the space has a multifunctional room, photo studio and recording studio, Jedna Dva Tři Gallery and a base for resident artists. By the beginning of the year 2019, Kafe Petrohradská opened in frontage of the building.