27.09.2023
All 12 Czechoslovak and Czech presidents are captured in the photographs taken by Czech News Agency (ČTK) reporters on official occasions and in informal situations, which can be seen in the South Gardens of Prague Castle. The Presidential Moments outdoor exhibition, which was premiered at this year's Summer Film School festival in Uherské Hradiště, southern Moravia, will be on display at Prague Castle until the end of October. The photographs have been in place for a couple of days already, while the official opening was held today.
"In the short time we have been at the Castle, not many events have been staged here. This is the first major event for us at this place. And I think we could not have wished for a better topic," Jana Vohralíková, head of the Office of the President of the Czech Republic, said at the opening of the exhibition that visitors can already see on the way down the Bull Staircase from the Castle's Third Courtyard. Most people see presidents only as personalities, but they rarely have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of them in the moments when they really are themselves. It is very nice that this exhibition has been created and that people can also see the leisure activities of the people who are at helm of this country, she added.
"I believe there will be more such events here and that this is not the ČTK's last initiative to cooperate with Prague Castle. Because the round-table debate we had on what activities to open at Prague Castle has shown that the institutions that are creating public awareness and awareness of how things work in this country will have their place here," Vohralíková said.
ČTK Director General Jaroslav Kábele reminded that the exhibition with the word "moments" in the title was the sixth in a row prepared by the ČTK. "But it has never been in such a beautiful and important setting before," he said. He mentioned that the independent photo section of the ČTK would celebrate its 100th anniversary next year and the authors of the current exhibition were already thinking about the next one. He expressed the wish that it could also be presented at the Castle.
More than a hundred photographs from the ČTK’s archive show presidents on their trips, the moments of their election and abdication, as well as the heads of state practising sports and being sick, and their relations to sport and culture. They are mapping the building and tearing down of the presidential cult of personality, and show depictions of presidents in films and at the theatre.
The pictures are accompanied by extensive texts. Visitors to the exhibition will see, among others, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in a children's home, Edvard Beneš in a Slavia football club's jersey, Gustáv Husák in a swimsuit during his visit to Cuba, Václav Klaus on skis, and the current head of state, Petr Pavel, as a biker.
The public news agency has prepared the exhibition Presidential Moments to mark the 105th anniversary of Czechoslovakia and the ČTK, which falls on the same day – October 28, 2023. The agency presented the first touring exhibition with "moments" in its title five years ago, when it celebrated its 100th anniversary along with the republic. This was an exhibition called Moments of the Century, followed by Moments of the Velvet Revolution, Undesired Moments, Olympic Moments and Czecho/Slovak Moments.