Kafka's Museum of Prague
Here you will not find a regular boring and full of enormous poster to simply read. This museum might be compared to a conception of Kafka"s world, something like the recreation of his own sub-conscient. A long the journey you will undergo good and bad feelings provoked by light games or strange mirrors that lead you nowhere, odd walls and stairs, different textures and fabrics.This museum of Prague is a whole sensorial experience that will give you a consistent knowledge about, not only Kafka"s work as his own life. If you already know about Kafka"s work and life then you will open yourself to these sensorial invitations and connect them to his book stories.
Incorporating this exhibition there are exposed most of the first editions of Kafka"s works, letters, diaries, manuscripts, photos and drawings, 3-D installations and five audiovisual pieces and soundtrack specially created for the exhibition.
The exhibition is composed by two important sessions: the Existential Space and the Imaginary Topography. The first stage is connected to the author"s life and connection to the city of Prague. We look at what the city does with the writer, how it models his life, the kind of mark that leaves on him. He sees the city as a "dear little mother with claws" being the goal of the museum the exploration of the city with Prague hotels, restaurants, theatres, galleries form Kafka"s point of view. Here you will discover what kind of secrets did Kafka hided as well as his privet life. In Imaginary Topography give us an idea about the way Kafka creates the layers of his city, being one of the most enigmatic operations of modern literature. The city appears as a noon recognizable place, the bridges, the streets, the monuments are all different.
Franz Kafka was born in Prague on the 3rd of July in the year of 1883, the eldest of six children. His parents were a middle-class merchant. The routes of this family were in Bohemia, capital of the country, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He grew up as a member of the minority Jewish community within a minority of the German-speaking population. During the period the Kafka lived in Germany and short time in Prague hotel there was little communication between these two groups or with the predominantly Czech-speaking citizens of Prague. When he failed to be accepted by either group, he sank into bitterness, distrust, insecurity, and hatred. Although he acquired early in life a thorough knowledge of Czech and a deep understanding of its literature, the gap remained, and this alienation was reflected in his writing, most notably in the protagonists of his stories.
There is also a shop of this Prague museum, where you can find books in many different languages, photos, posters, notepads and much more.
You will surely not be indifferent to this trip to the unknown world of the writer Franz Kafka.