HUBATOVA-VACKOVA, Lada (ed.)
Theatre of the Street. Advertising and Window Display within the Context of Modernism, 1918-1938

The metaphor “theatre of the street” was conceived by theoretician Karel Teige to describe the vivant and dynamic audio-visual hustle and bustle typical for city centres in 1920’s. He did not mean only the omnipresent traffic, but also the urban iconography, composed of shop signs and portals, illuminated window displays, façade advertisements, and flashing neon signs. The fleeting “theatre of the street” is a key theme for understanding the Modernist style of the Interwar period, yet it has rarely been explored in expert studies. This book searches for common aspects of commerce and art; the “low” and the “high”; the pop-culture, commercial advertisement, and independent artistic creation. The publication contains five expert studies, which present advertisement practices in the context of fine art, architecture, photography, film, and new technologies appearing with the electrification of towns and cities. [publisher's note]

Published by Academy of Arts Architecture & Design Prague, 2023
Architecture / Design / Curatorial Studies