The Czech Summerhouses photography project documents a specific Czech activity and concentrates on the results of its creativity. It documents chata's that mirror the extraordinary personalities of their builders, extraordinary personalities, in both negative and positive way. The project follows these chata builders as individuals forming a dream. Each one of these chata constructions creates a world of its own, an escape the from-day-to-day reality. Yet, these chata's are not emergency shelters, they are architectures of abstract human happiness. They do not bow humbly in their corner, but govern their own small space in matter and spirit. The hundreds of structures documented in this project reflect a society changing and human dreams in chains. It shows a special type of Czech rambler romanticism and the relationship of people to their land, a relative absence of religion and a passion for nature, for freedom and for a sense of community, a passion for creativity and the do-it-yourself mania. These chata's dot the Czech landscape in their thousands, yet, very often they are forgotten, unseen and very seldom analyzed.
— Veronika Zapletalova




Selected group exhibitions: 2002: Zlin and his people, Town theatre, Zlin; House of photography of Josef Sudek, Masopust v Roztokach; 6th International Photography Gathering, Aleppo, Syria; AR(t)CHITEKTURA, The Fragner Gallery of Czech Architecture, Prague; 2001: 4 elements, NOD, Prague; 1999: Renovated town of Neratovice, Aks, Neratovice; 1998: Studio of Kurt Gebauer, Academy of art, Prague.