45 000 l: Volume for Engaged Architecture

Shop window gallery located in a public passage in the centre of Brno city focusing on curating and exhibiting engaged architecture.

"Forty-five thousand litres is a volume expanding beyond the institutional walls into the public space. The gallery aims to confront everyday reality with the issues of contemporary architecture along with its interdisciplinary overlaps. The exhibition programme seeks current social themes, reflecting them in the context of the city. This is also related to the question of how to exhibit and communicate such themes to the passers-by through the format of a shop window."

The gallery was founded in 2022 by PhD candidate at the Faculty of Architecture, Brno University of Technology, Eva Truncova and it operated under the auspices and with the support of FA BUT. A neglected shop window in the busy public passage in the centre of Brno offered a unique opportunity to test the limits of the exhibiting architecture and confront the public with the topics which tend to be discussed in the circles.

Since March 2022, five site-specific installations (Under Surveillance, Ukrainian Heritage under Threat, Keep Calm and Discourse, Pawnshops and MOHFR [Multitude of Highly Reflective Faces]) were introduced in the space including an international open call where four of them were chosen to be exhibited in 2023.

In the course of the last months, 45 000 l has established a group of regular opening-goers and has been recognized among the wider public leading to a transformation of the location – the passage is not used only as a shortcut and it offers an additional value in a form of gallery inclusive as possible.

The second international Open Call is planned for September 2023. This time there is an intention to set the topic and draw attention to how to design and produce site-specific installations sustainably without overproduction (if that is even possible) and to step out the format of the shop window and add more accompanying events (such as thematic guided tours, performances in the public space, etc.).