Discussion / Coming to Terms

As part of the EMIA: Empathy in Art project, we will welcome the architect of Czech origin EVU JIŘIČNÁ, BRANISLAV TVAROŽKA and PETER MAZALÁN on the virtual grounds of the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU. The discussion will take place on October 21, 2021 at 6 pm in the Creative Center FAD STU ONLINE within the format “We have sat down”, which will be moderated by journalist Andrej Bán. You can find the link to the event here.

GUESTS

Eva Jiřičná has lived and worked in London for more than 45 years, where in 1984 she founded her own studio – Eva Jiřičná Architects Limited. In 1999, together with Peter Vágner, she founded the AI ​​- DESIGN studio in Prague. The design in the concept of Eva Jiřičná and her collaborators is characterized by lightness, clarity and respect for the material. The clients of the studios include major companies and institutions from all over the world, such as Amec plc, Selfridges, Harrods, boodle & Dunthorne, Prague Castle, Royal Academy of Arts, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Council, Tomas Bata University in Zlín, Zlín City and others. . Her studios have won numerous international design awards and their work is regularly published in magazines and books around the world. Eva Jiřičná also earned an award for her personal approach in the field of architecture and design – she was awarded the title of Royal Industrial Designer. She was elected President of the Architectural Association in London in 2003. She works on international juries of architectural competitions and lectures extensively on her work around the world.

Branislav Tvarožek was born on December 2, 1925 in Lok near Levice. As a child, he learned three languages: Slovak, Hungarian and German, and it was his knowledge of the German language that saved him in the last years of the war. In the summer of 1944, he joined the Slovak National Uprising and became a member of the university guard section – a specialized unit created by the Slovak insurgent general Ján Golian. After suppressing the uprising, he fell into German captivity, from where he later managed to escape. After returning home, together with their father, they helped the partisans around Nové Mesto nad Váhom. However, with the onset of communist totalitarianism, his person also found himself in the throes of political processes. He was arrested in early 1949 after lodging accommodation with his cousin Živodar, who then returned to Czechoslovakia as a courier for Western intelligence services. For his cousin’s help, Branislav was detained and in the staged trial “Živodar Tvarožek a spol.” He was sentenced to 5 years in prison, which he served in the Jáchymov labor camp. He mostly worked in electrical workshops, where he was seriously injured and almost lost his sight. He bears the consequences of the communist prison to this day. In 2015, he received the Nation’s Memory Award.

Peter Mazalán made his debut on the stage of the SND Opera in 2009 as Enrico in Haydn’s opera The Deserted Island (dir. Andrew Parrott). He was a member of the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and a member of the Stadttheater ensemble in Klagenfurt, in which he studied several opera characters. As a concert singer, he collaborated, among other bodies, e.g. also with the Bavarian State Orchestra (at the performance of Dvořák’s Biblical Songs) or the Munich Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Orff’s Carmina Burana in several cities (Lübeck, Reutlingen, Essen, Frankfurt, Rheingau and São Paulo). In 2014, he performed on the SND records as Schaunard in Puccini’s Bohemia (directed by Petr Konwitschny and in collaboration with conductors Friedrich Haider and Peter Valentovič). Peter Mazalán regularly performs in original inter-media projects. He has collaborated with a number of artists from various artistic fields in approximately twelve projects implemented so far in the period 2015-2017. In the field of music, they were e.g. singers Eva Šušková, Aleš Janiga, pianists Maroš Klátik, Xénia Jarová, Braňo Ladič, Peter Pažický, guitarist Ondrej Veselý, cellists Jozef Lupták, Pavol Mucha, Cluster ensemble – Ivan Šiller, Fero Király and others. Visual artist Martina Šimkovičová is a permanent artistic partner and co-author of the projects. Places of project implementation are often unusual spaces such as. old boiler room of the Faculty of Architecture STU in Bratislava, Hall and Foyer of the same school, Hall of prof. Čabelka at MTF STU, video game room G-point, Bratislava, Špilberk in Brno (casemates – former fortress and prison) and others.