Dream On: Signal Space exhibition takes visitors back to festival's mesmerizing roots

Opened less than a year ago in the renovated Old Town Market, Signal Space just expanded its digital art installations with a nostalgia-fueled room taking visitors back to some of the most iconic open-air projections of Prague’s loved Signal Festival.

Running until the end of August, the exhibition Dream On! Where it All Began showcases half a dozen of the most popular video-mapping projections that illuminated the Basilica of St. Ludmila, on Náměstí Míru, throughout the years as part of the Signal Festival.

Over the past decade, the neo-Gothic church on Náměstí Míru has become one of the most popular and distinctive locations associated with the annual video-mapping, digital art event.

Nestled in the beautiful neo-Renaissance building of the former Old Town Market in the very center of Prague, the new exhibit “takes you back to the roots of the Signal Festival – to the place where a dream became the largest cultural event in the Czech Republic and, later, a permanent home for digital art.”

The next edition will be held on October 15-18 all around Prague. But for those who don’t want to wait or feel like they’ve missed out on some of the festival’s most memorable video-mappings, there’s the chance to be mesmerized and hypnotized once again.

“The [Signal] festival only lasts four days. That’s why we wanted to offer a space where people can experience digital art every day,” explained its director Martin Pošta.

Tickets for Dream On! Where It All Began run for CZK 99.

Entry to the new exhibition is also included for those visiting Signal Space’s main exhibition: with a clear futuristic stance and forward-looking dive into the world of digital art, Echoes of Tomorrow blurs the distinction between time, space, sound and movement through eight rooms curated by Czech and international creators from Turkey, the UK, Belgium, Spain, the US and more.

From local glassmaking studio Preciosa Lighting’s infinity mirrored room to a dizzying, 360-degree immersive space or even a tweaked version of Japanese programmer and artist Shohei Fujimoto’s world-famous laser installations, the meandering from one room to the next brings gasps, surprises and a feeling of anticipation about what lies behind the next door.

“We’ve put together the exhibition to engage as many senses as possible,” Pošta continued. “One installation even works with smell, most of course are based on a visual and sound experience. Some works respond directly to the movement of visitors, who thus become part of the installation.”

A dream years in the making, Signal Space opened in October last year as the city’s first permanent digital art gallery against the backdrop of the namesake festival’s growing success.

Several locations were considered, including at the Výstaviště Exhibition Grounds in Prague 7, before the final choice settled on the long-closed Old Town Market – a late 19th century neo-Renaissance wonder that was the first large covered market in the city.

Drawing inspiration from similar spaces around the world, including the Atelier des Lumières in Paris or London’s Lightroom, the new Signal Space seeks to give digital art and all its affiliates a proper and permanent place to spread and thrive.

“Signal Space brings a new dimension of contemporary art to Prague and breathes new life into the historic Old Town Market,” said Jiří Pospíšil, then-Deputy Mayor for Culture, Tourism and Monument Preservation, when it opened last year. “It is a combination of tradition and innovation that Prague deserves.”

Last February, less than half a year after opening its doors to the public, the venue beat projects from all around the world to win the prestigious Inavation Award - nicknamed the "Oscars" of the audiovisual and immersive-project worlds.

According to Tomáš Slabihoudek, Prague's Councillor for Culture, this milestone "is a major success not only for Signal Space but for Prague as a whole."

"The fact that a Prague gallery has succeeded in a global competition confirms the high standard of the local cultural scene and its ability to hold its own on the world stage of contemporary art," he continued.