8–14 November 2025
Holešovická šachta, Bubenská 14, Prague 7
Opening: 7 November 2025, from 6 PM
Open: Tue–Sat, 5–10 PM
An international collaboration between students of graphic design from UMPRUM and Geneva’s HEAD will culminate in a joint exhibition at Holešovická šachta. The show will present the first part of a reciprocal workshop taking place in early November in the Krkonoše mountains. The exhibition offers distinctive perspectives reflecting on Sněžka as a place between two countries, between reality and myth, through collective works created directly in the mountains.
As part of the winter semester at UMPRUM, cooperation was initiated between the Studio of Graphic Design and Visual Communication and the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD – Genève). “The idea for a collaborative project between the two schools began to take shape in the summer of last year. By the autumn, the entire graphic design studio visited the Geneva university, and the partnership between the schools developed naturally through both personal and professional ties between the faculty of the two institutions,” say the heads of the Studio of Graphic Design and Visual Communication, Zuzana Lednická and Richard Jaroš. The second part of the collaboration will take place in April 2026 in France, where students will focus on the flow of the Saône River.
A total of 44 Czech and Swiss students will spend several days together in mountain huts in Horní Malá Úpa. In addition to basic equipment such as printers and scanners, they will work mainly with analog methods, using the mountain environment and nature as neutral ground for both groups.
The Krkonoše environment, however, serves not only as a pleasant backdrop for work. The anatomy of the place and its story become the main subject of exploration, and in the Czech chapter of the project, this role is embodied by Mount Sněžka. The international teams will explore its history, mysticism, and the human destinies connected to it. Sněžka, as a national symbol, also functions here as a borderland between two states—physically dividing two territories while opening up themes of boundaries and interconnection.
The final form of the outcomes presented at the exhibition will evolve organically during the workshop itself. The preliminary idea envisions black-and-white posters, zines, or possibly videos—but the studio leaders wish to allow the students’ creative processes to develop freely. Materials gathered through observation and perception of the site, along with the students’ shared experience of the chosen location, will help co-create the concept of this experimental exhibition. Positioned between design and artistic research, the resulting body of work explores how landscape and its story can be transformed into visual language.
The project is supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in the Czech Republic
Faculty supervision:
Zuzana Lednická, Richard Jaroš (UMPRUM);
Rob van Leijsen, Noémie Besset (HEAD)
