Since the Žlutý Kopec Water Reservoirs were made fully available to the public two months ago, almost 25,000 people have visited, 6,600 of them in the March opening weekend during the Prototyp exhibition.
“From June we are extending our opening hours by one day, so we will be open every day except Mondays,” said Jana Janulíková, director of TIC BRNO, the City of Brno’s tourism agency, which operates the facility. “We are also increasing the number of guided tours to 8 per day. Furthermore, visitors have the opportunity to view the reservoirs in peace and undisturbed by themselves, with an audio guide in Czech, English, German or Polish. This way it’s possible to walk around the entire area at your own pace, to soak up the atmosphere of the reservoirs for as long as you want.”
According to Janulíková, the long-term intention is to regularly open the water reservoirs to cultural site-specific projects, which will be presented under the brand #VodojeMyArt, including long-term installations as well as one-off events in the fields of music, theater, dance, audio-visual art and more. “We are already in contact with a whole range of artists and organizers of cultural events,” she added.
Among the first events was a music concert in the second oldest reservoir, with brick-walled interiors, on 28 May. The sold-out concert of the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, entitled “Samá láska”, featured several contemporary musical pieces, three of which were composed especially for the reservoirs.
Three Czech composers brought their compositions to life in the reservoir facility: Petr Hromádka and his composition “Underground, Psí víno”, Naomi Savková with “Zinc and dripping water”, and Tomáš Šenkyřík with “Vodovjemy”. Visitors to the concert, in the dark and majestic spaces of the second brick reservoir, reacted enthusiastically.
Site-specific concerts tailor-made for these underground environments are also planned as part of the Brno ŽIVĚ festival, with the subtitle “Session 56 sec”. Once a month from June to September, one of the tanks of the concrete reservoir will become a music laboratory, in which musicians will create compositions using its 56-second echo.
These acoustic shows will be an extension of the experience for those who purchase a self-guided all-day ticket to the reservoirs for the day and arrive one hour before the end of opening hours. Among others, DJ Tom Holič, saxophonists Petri Herzanen and Pavel Zlámal, and cellist Dorota Barová will perform during this period. The first concert is planned for 12 June from 5pm.
Coming soon, from Tuesday 25 June, a new version of the audiovisual installation “Critical Level” by the Svitava association,
a transmedia art lab held by Jiří Suchánek and Petr Bradáček, will appear in the concrete reservoir. An initial version of the exhibit was already available during the opening weekend. In the dark corners of this area, it will be possible to experience laser projections and music effects exploiting the space of the reservoir.
Later on, during autumn, other events have already been planned. Filharmonie Brno is preparing an Exhibition of New Music – a compositional project by young Czech composers, which will take into account the sound-acoustic specifics of the unconventional space. The highly praised audiovisual festival Prototyp will also be repeated here for the third time.
