Supported by:

The projects Old Net for New Music, Movement–Sound–Space, and Cella Gallery are supported by a grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The projects Cella Gallery and Movement–Sound–Space are also supported by a grant from the Statutory City of Opava.

History of Bludný kámen
1995–1999

University Club – Bludný kámen Tea House was founded in 1995 and soon became an informal center of alternative culture in Opava. Its activities were diverse – concerts of ethnic music, jazz, contemporary classical music, folk concerts, alternative music concerts, author literary readings, poetry evenings, unconventional theater performances, lectures on literature, visual arts, Eastern philosophy, psychology, nature, etc. In 2003, as part of the privatization of the city’s residential and non-residential property fund, the city sold this space to the Silesian University at a discounted price, and immediately terminated the lease for the Bludný kámen tea house (for interest – the Silesian University leased the space to a company that established and operated a 24/7 gaming room). After several years, the university returned the premises to the city. While the gaming room was successfully expelled, these spaces, where interesting non-conformist cultural events and exhibitions of contemporary visual arts have been held since the second half of the 1980s, remain closed.

1999–2008

On January 1, 1999, Bludný kámen became the operator of the struggling municipal gallery – House of Art, located in a former Dominican monastery. He worked there until December 31, 2008, exactly 10 years, before receiving notice. The official reason for the termination was planned renovations. The real reason was the city’s disagreement with the activities carried out by Bludný kámen. The city’s management and the newly established budget organization OKO, under which the House of Art fell, were irritated by Bludný kámen’s emphasis on presenting current contemporary art regardless of what the average citizen would say.

In the House of Art, Bludný kámen organized around 250 exhibitions of contemporary visual arts, photography, video art, architecture, design, installations, etc. He collaborated with curators – Jiří Valoch, Zbyněk Sedláček, Vladimír Birgus, and Tomáš Skalík. Several dozen catalogs and brochures were printed for the exhibitions.

The House of Art, as a municipal gallery and at that time the only gallery in Opava dealing with the contemporary visual arts scene, presented a wide spectrum of contemporary visual creation. The House of Art showcased both “classics” (Karel Malich, Věra Janoušková, Jan Steklík, Dalibor Chatrný), middle generation artists (Marian Palla, Jan Ambrůz, Jiří Surůvka), and the youngest generation (Jan Stolín, Radim Labuda, Record group). Studios of high art schools (FaVU Brno, AVU and VŠUP Prague, FU Ostrava) were regularly presented, as well as the highest quality artists from the region (Eduard Ovčáček, Dušan Chládek, Karel Adamus). Several significant exhibitions were held (Another World?, Concrete Club, Perpendicular to the Axis II), architecture and design also had an indispensable place in the exhibition strategy of the House of Art (Josip Plečnik, Architect Ivo Klimeš’ 4 Theaters, About the Chair). International creators also exhibited independently (Ruth Bianco, Gian Pedretti, Dann Senn)..

From the beginning of 1995, the “Different Media, Different Faces” project was implemented in the Oratory of the House of Art, presenting the work of predominantly young artists responding to specific spaces and working with unconventional visual media (Tomáš Skalík, Robert Vlasák, Pavel Korbička). Since the end of 2005, the House of Art has held exhibitions in the outdoor space of Atrium DU, regularly presenting works by students of art schools (Andrea Štekrová, Jan Krtička, Radek Nivnický). Thanks to cooperation with the Institute of Creative Photography at FPF SU in Opava, the Photography Cabinet was established in 2003 in the refectory of DU, which was profiled as a laboratory of contemporary photographic production in confrontation with already verified works (Tereza Vlčková, Dita Pepe, Václav Chochola)..

Since the end of 1999, the House of Art has been preparing exhibitions in the adjacent former Church of St. Wenceslas, whose space with many contemporary visual and sound creations unusually harmonized (Jan Ambrůz, Ján Lastomírsky, Jindřich Štreit, Pohyb-Zvuk-Prostor festival). This activity was interrupted in 2002 due to poor technical condition of the interior plaster, but even during these two and a half years, it was possible to organize a number of concerts, festivals, and exhibitions, lectures on visual arts, performances, etc. in this unique space, successfully introducing the public to a previously almost unknown and inspiring space. After the interior reconstruction of the church, Bludný kámen resumed its former activities with a concert by the avant-garde Polish group Stolik, two editions of the Pohyb – Zvuk – Prostor festival, whose creation was inspired by its raw beauty ten years ago, and finally with the exhibition Spaces, Places, Gaps, which he collaborated on with the Uff!Art association.

A significant part of Bludný kámen’s activities in the House of Art was the regular presentation of contemporary experimental, improvised, and electronic music through a series of individual concerts and three festivals, held in the House of Art’s own space, in the former church, and in the Moravian Chapel. In the neighboring wine bar U Přemka, Bludný kámen organized regular jazz, blues concerts, as well as concerts of alternative rock, neo-folk, or ethnic music. The extensive space hosted a wide range of performances, unconventional theater performances, film screenings, lectures, literary evenings, programs with contemporary dance, etc.

2009–2023

From 2008 to 2009, Bludný kámen operated the space Galerie Albertovec in the Opava region, where it organized group exhibitions, plein airs, and workshops. Since 2009 (until 2020), it organized concerts of contemporary “experimental” music and the festival Pohyb-Zvuk-Prostor at the Galerie výtvarného umění v Ostravě. To this day, in collaboration with the Ostravské centrum nové hudby, it organizes the Minimaraton elektronické hudby festival as part of the Ostravské dny.

To Opava, Bludný kámen returned in 2009 after a short break, when Martin Klimeš, together with Tomáš Skalík, founded Gallery Cella, which was initially located in the basement premises of the historic building of the Silesian Regional Museum (exhibitions by Ladislav Jezbera, Jan Krtička, Lenka Klodová, Pode Bal and Record groups, …), and subsequently in the basement premises of the former headquarters of the SZM (Rafani, Jan Vytiska, Pavla Malinová, Jiří Ptáčník). From the technically inadequate basement, Gallery Cella moved to its current premises on Matiční Street at the beginning of 2011. Since 2012, it has also been using Hovorny for its exhibition program – two empty recesses after telephone booths in the city center.

Bludný kámen continued organizing sound performances and concerts initially in the Gottfrei space, and since 2014, it has moved most of its non-exhibition activities to the Matiční dům, just a few dozen meters away from the Gallery Cella. In Matiční dům, it also establishes a library for the public (see Reading Room section).

Since 2012, Bludný kámen has organized several significant international group and thematic exhibitions. Among the most notable are the exhibition projects Na houby /for John Cage (2012), which involved more than 80 artists and took place at 4 locations in Opava, or the exhibition project Znějící, rezonující, vibrující (2017), which was one of the most extensive exhibitions dedicated to sound art in our country and took place at seven locations in Opava and Ostrava. Others include Body Varu (2013), Vy troubo! / pro Jiřího Koláře (2014), Předtím, teď, potom (2015), Hraniční (2016), λ ~ viditelné, neviditelné (2018), Souostroví (2020). During the COVID-19 period, Bludný kámen organized a series of online streams called Izolovaná spojení, aimed at supporting artists and creators during the closure of clubs and galleries, and the festival Pohyb–Zvuk–Meziprostor, which took place as an online presentation of video performances, documents, and other audiovisual projects. Since 2021, Bludný kámen has been organizing some of its activities at the Továrna Litultovice near Opava (Pohyb–Zvuk–Prostor 2021 and 2022, Hear ME! 2021, etc.).

Part of Bludný kámen’s activities also includes the publication of catalogs and publications. In addition to catalogs for the aforementioned exhibition projects, it has also published the book XXBK, summarizing 20 years of Bludný kámen’s activities, or the publication Po proudu zvuku, which accompanied the exhibitions of the same name by Michal Kindernay and Magdaléna Manderlová. Along with other books and publications from the time of Bludný kámen’s operation, they are available upon request. In 2022, Bludný kámen, in collaboration with Michal Kindernay and Magdaléna Manderlová, launched the website Zvukyopavy.cz, serving as an audio archive of Opava and its surroundings. The public can upload any field recordings along with the coordinates of the location, the time of recording, and a brief comment.