Pavel praises Havel’s bold design legacy at Prague Castle

President Petr Pavel has praised Václav Havel’s willingness to introduce bold and unconventional design to Prague Castle, describing his predecessor’s creative courage as an enduring source of inspiration.

Pavel made the remarks Wednesday while touring Design for Václav Havel and High Craft at the Prague Castle Riding Hall. The exhibitions form part of the 28th Designblok festival and will open to the public on Oct. 7.

The president and first lady Eva Pavlová viewed objects created for Havel alongside works by more than 30 contemporary designers.

The exhibition examines Havel’s role as a commissioner of art and design at Prague Castle between 1990 and 2002.

Its centerpiece is Havel’s study from the early 1990s, designed by Bořek Šípek and loaned from a private collection. Other objects from Havel’s presidency include Castle Guard uniforms and a guardhouse designed by Theodor Pištěk, as well as Michal Gabriel’s Winged Leopardess sculpture.

Photographs and a handwritten letter to Havel from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II are also on display.

Pavel praised Havel’s courage to “come up with something new that, at the moment, might seem almost like blasphemy.”

Without that willingness to depart from convention, he said, Prague Castle might also lack the architectural interventions created by Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik at the request of Czechoslovakia’s first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

The installations are intended to show how Havel used contemporary art, design, and architecture to reshape the atmosphere of the Castle following the fall of communism.

The contemporary section includes a new presidential lectern designed by Jan Plecháč, which Pavel is expected to use at future official events.

Plecháč designed three original lecterns with clean, cubic forms intended to suit the Castle’s varied ceremonial spaces. Their surfaces draw inspiration from the contour lines of Opyš hill, on which the complex stands.

Pavel said Havel’s legacy extended beyond design, praising the former president for restoring meaning to the values of freedom and responsibility following decades of communist rule.

“I think it’s worth it for all of us, as part of his anniversary, to take a moment to reflect on what we will do with that freedom and responsibility today and what we will do with it in the future,” Pavel said.

The exhibitions will remain open at the Prague Castle Riding Hall through Jan. 17. They form part of the wider Havel Alive! program commemorating what would have been the former president’s 90th birthday.

Havel, a playwright and communist-era dissident, became the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the independent Czech Republic. He served as head of state from 1989 to 2003 and died in December 2011 at the age of 75.