As part of the curator travel programme, Emmanuelle de l’Écotais, founder and director of the Paris-based Photo Days festival, visited the Czech Republic in June. Her visit focused on research into the Czech photography scene, meetings with artists, curators and cultural institutions, as well as preparations for a planned Paris retrospective of photographer Jindřich Štreit’s work, which will take place in Paris in autumn this year.
In Prague, Emmanuelle de l’Écotais met with photographers Václav Jirásek (Bratrstvo) and Kateřina Sýsová (Sisters in Photography) at their studio, with Štěpánka Stein at the Teleport Gallery, with Markéta Kinterová at Fotograf Contemporary, and with curator and photographer Pavel Vančát. The programme also included meetings with Christelle Havranek, chief curator of Kunsthalle Praha, and Pavlína Pudil, chair of the board of the Pudil Family Foundation.
During her visit, she also viewed several important photography exhibitions at the House of Photography, the Rudolfinum Gallery, the House at the Stone Bell, and the Riding School of Prague Castle, where she visited the exhibition Fragments of Memory accompanied by Veronika Wolf, Cultural and Programme Director of the Office of the President of the Czech Republic.
An important part of the visit was a personal meeting with photographer Jindřich Štreit, whom Emmanuelle de l’Écotais visited at his studio in Sovinec together with photographers and curators Štěpánka Stein, Tomáš Jiráček and Štěpánka Bieleszová. At the Olomouc Museum of Art, she also viewed the comprehensive exhibition celebrating Štreit’s 80th birthday, titled From the City Out!.
The aim of the visit was to gather as many insights and as much information as possible about Štreit’s personality and artistic work in preparation for the retrospective exhibition, which Emmanuelle de l’Écotais is curating for presentation in Paris in autumn 2026.
