Metroscope. 50 years of architecture, design and art in the public space of the Prague metro

I pass, cross, disappear, connect,
along with a million people daily I like:
speed, availability, crossing, networks.
Deep below you I’m catching up!
Beneath the fit of the surface, beneath the cocoons of flats,
under cells of offices and centers here
secretly I roar in the fluorescent light.
Under the freshness of the parks, under the drunkenness of the city,
I am simply the dream of every big city!

Architectural historian Zdeněk Lukeš, metro architect Anna Švarc, architect Patrik Kotas or creator of the unified information system Tomáš Machek will guide you through 50 years of the metro. Urban planner and poet Anna Beata Háblová punctuated the documentary with slammer improvisations on the topic of public transport.

Anna Švarc perceives the construction of the subway as a fundamental turning point in the development of the city, comparable, for example, to the construction of the New Town or the demolition of the walls in the 19th century. “The Prague metro is also specific in that it emphasizes the quality of public space and has a clearly legible architectural concept of the public building. It is the so-called fourth dimension of Prague.”

The most distinctive feature of the Prague underground are the pressed anodized panels that can be seen on the walls of the stations of route A in the city center. They give the line a uniform face, but at the same time color variability. Zdeněk Lukeš sees in this approach a good compromise between solitary stations built as artistic artifacts and the utilitarian principle, where all stations look the same. “What is very attractive and attracts the attention of visitors can be annoying for everyday users.”

At the time of the intensive construction of the Prague metro, 2 to 4 percent of investment costs went to artistic decoration. That’s why art columnist Matěj Forejt also gets space in the documentary, who together with the author discovers and comments on the most interesting artefacts connected with the subway. For example, the high-quality mosaic at the Skalka station, the bizarre statue of the Builder or the disappeared glass double sculpture Kontakty.

In the documentary Metrospektiva, you have the opportunity to look at the subway through unique glass fittings or in the reflection of the legendary screens from Náměstí republiky. Your subway journey will never be the same again.