Patrons: The City of Prague, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic

Organisers: the Inter-Kontakt-Grafik Foundation and the City of Prague

Co-organisers: Culture and Compatriot Relationships Department of the Ministry of Culture, Czech Centres, Goethe Institute, Pro Helvetia Foundation, Open Society Fund, French Institute, Italian Institute, Hungarian Cultural Centre, Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain, Embassy of Canada, Polish Cultural Institute, Slovak Cultural Centre, Hungarian Cultural Centre, Cultural Centre of the Francophone Region of Belgium, Central Europe Gallery and Publishing House, Bookstore Meissner

General sponsor: Komerční banka, a. s.

Sponsors: Komerční pojišovna, a.s., Komerční spořitelna, a.s., České aerolinie, a.s.

Medial partners: Radio Praha CR, radiožurnál CR, Večerník Praha, Grapheion

General manager: PhDr. Simeona Hošková

Venue: Old Town Hall, Prague - ground floor; Strahov Cloister - Summer refectory

Date: 14 September - 15 October 1998
Press conference: 14 September, 13.00
Awarding of prizes (with sponsors’ presence): 14 September, 16.00
Opening: 14 September, 18.00

33 participating countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Croatia, Slovenia, USA, Canada, Yugoslavia, United Kingdom, Spain, Brasil, Argentina, India, Japan, Korea, Bulgaria, Australia, Austria

Approx. 280 participating artists.

Conception and organisation of the exhibition: The Foreign national collections are selected by national curators.

The Czech collection was selected by the Czech jury from delivered works on 18th June, 1998, in Prague. Members of the jury: doc. Ondřej Michálek - Faculty of Education, Olomouc; doc. Miloslav Polcar - Faculty of Education, Prague; Oldřich Kulhánek - graphic artist, Prague; Jana Orlíková - director emeritus of the Print collection of the National Gallery, Prague; Prof. Jiří Šalamoun - Academy of Applied Arts, Prague; Prof. Zdeněk Ziegler - Academy of Applied Arts; Prague, doc. Eduard Ovčáček - Faculty of Education, Ostrava; PhDr. Jana Wittlichová -Print collection of the National Gallery, Prague; doc. Jiří Lindovský - Head of the Print studio at the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague; Jiří Anderle - graphic artist, Prague, doc. Vratislav Ševčík, Faculty of Architecture

Winners will be selected by the international jury to be be held from 12th to 13th September, 1998 in Prague. It will be made up of curators from Slovakia (PhDr. Eva Trojanová, Curator of the Print Department of the National Gallery, Bratislava), Poland (Magdalena Hniedziewicz, Editor-in-Chief, Pokaz, journal of the art critics, Warsaw), Hungary (Júlia N. Mészáros, Director of the Városi Müveszeti Múzeum, Györ), Germany (Christoph Tannert, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin), France (Jean-Clarance Lambert, Bourgival), Belgium (Catherine de Braekeleer, Director of the Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image Imprimée, La Louviére), Switzerland (Benoit Junod, diplomat, Jussy), Italy (Achille Perilli, art historian, Roma), Russia (Anna Tchoudetskaya, Print Department of the State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), Ukraine (Andrey Taranenko, Art Volume journal, Odessa), Latvia (Elita Ansone, State Museum of Art, Riga), Estonia (Anu Liivak, Director of the Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn), Croatia (Slavica Marković, Director of the Print Department of the Croatian Academy of Science and Art), USA (Ann Friedman, lecturer, Washington University, Seattle), Canada (Prof. Walter Jule, lecturer, University of Alberta, Edmonton), Argentina (Jorge Glusberg, director of Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires), Spain (Mariano Navarro, Madrid) and Austria (Prof. Walter Koschatzky, Director Emeritus of the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Wien) who will come to Prague as guests of the appropriate Embassies and Institutes. Delegates from central and eastern Europe will receive contributions to the the cost of their journey and accommodation from the Soros Foundations – Open Society Fund in Prague in co-operation with the individual countries.

Catalogue: Czech and English. The catalogue will contain several basic texts on the theme of the Labyrinth and the Present Day, essays by the curators, reproductions of the exhibited works and artists’ texts on the given theme of the Labyrinth.

Aim of the triennial: The competition focuses on prints based on a given theme chosen for its broad interpretational, philosophical, cultural, literary, intellectual and design potential. It offers the graphic artist an inexhaustible number of opportunities to present one of the oldest and most attractive myths in the culture of mankind, above all in the context of the end of the millenium.
Students from the printmaking and graphic design studios of the Prague School of Applied Art will be involved in the exhibition, together with students from other schools of higher education in the Czech Republic. The Czech part of the Triennial will be organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a travelling exhibition with a catalogue, to tour the Czech Embassies and Czech Cultural Centres throughout the world (as was the case with the first Triennial).

Advertising: press, TV, City Light and tram advertisements. Printed materials relating to the Triennial (catalogue, invitation, slides, press releases) & to the touring exhibition 1999 - 2000.

Part of the Triennial information will be the news that the 3rd Triennial will be held in 2000 as one of the cultural projects of Prague - City of Culture 2000 (see enclosed information).

Contact address: the Inter-Kontakt-Grafik Foundation, Masarykovo nábř. 250, P. O. Box 30, CZ-110 01 Prague 1, phones: +420 / 2 / 24 91 92 78, +420 / 2 / 29 18 07, +420 / 2 / 90 00 10 45, e-mail: galerie@mbox.vol.cz. PhDr. Simeona Hošková, General manager, Olga Frídlová - Secretary.