For a long time, Kafkárna’s garden remained in the background. Initially, our attention was drawn to the construction and production of Bohumil Kafka’s monumental sculpture studio; later, the site was used as a working space for a stone workshop and subsequently for students’ artistic production. In recent years, as part of the programme of the UMPRUM Centre for Art and Ecology, we have focused on the garden not simply as the surroundings of the studio or a functional space, but above all as a place for meeting, sharing, critical and creative exchange, and as a distinctive, multilayered organism in its own right – one worth exploring and approaching, learning from, but also caring for with sensitivity and treating with respect.

Our recent activities and programmes have taken the garden as a starting point for exploring its potential as a space for artistic and interspecies learning, for developing the university’s third role, and for research and practices that examine the intersections between contemporary issues and the role and possibilities of art within a specific context: a garden in the city.