The museum is preparing a permanent exhibition in its future seat in the House of the Pážat, the time and ideological focus of which is based on the founding charter of the museum and its orientation. The successful solution of this project presupposes a simultaneous overall adaptation of the building, which is provided by the City of Prague. Prague as its owner. Due to the limited scope, the exhibition projects will involve not only the suitable spaces in the House of the Passionists on the ground floor, but also other parts of the building (basement, courtyard, garden, first floor and attic). Educational and scientific activities will also be combined in the museum's headquarters.
The Prague City Council has approved the location of the headquarters and exhibition of the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century in the House of Pážat in July 2020. At the end of 2020, a lease agreement was signed between the City of Prague and the Museum of the History of Prague. Prague and the Museum of Memory of the XX Century. For the museum, ing. arch. Martin Veber has designed a volume study for the museum, which is available here. On the basis of this study, the City of Prague commissioned the preparation of the construction documentation to studio IXA, which completed it in 2022 under the direction of doc. Ing. arch. Tomáš Hradečný. In 2023, a tender was issued by the City of Prague for the construction of the new building. Prague launched a competition for the selection of a construction company in 2023. The reconstruction of the Pážat House into the headquarters of the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century was approved by the Prague City Council. The selected subsidiary of Metrostav, Subterra, should complete the work in early 2025.
In April 2022, a working group was created at the Museum of the Memory of the 20th Century under the leadership of historian Petr Blažek, whose members are both museum employees and external collaborators. The group first prepared a conceptual proposal, which was discussed with members of the museum's internal bodies (the Board of Trustees, the Supervisory Board, the College and the Collections Committee). It was also presented to the public, most recently at the Center for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP) on November 30, 2022. Subsequently, the group prepared a draft libretto for the permanent exhibition, which was presented to members of the College of the Museum of Twentieth-Century Memory on March 2, 2023. On April 27, 2023, the libretto for the permanent exhibition was unanimously approved by the members of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Twentieth-Century Memory. On 23 May 2023, the document was discussed by the Board of Trustees of the Museum of the Memory of the Twentieth Century. On 7 June 2023, the libretto was discussed with a positive response at the meeting of the Committee for Culture, Heritage Care, Exhibition and Tourism Promotion of the City of Prague, where its content was presented by the head of the working group Petr Blažek. The committee meeting was also attended by the chairwoman of the board of trustees, Hana Marvanová, and the director of the museum, Jan Kalous.
The basic approach of the libretto is the concept of the narrative museum, which has been gaining ground in museology in recent decades. In addition to foreign institutions, the debates on the focus of the permanent exhibition also took into account the existing or planned similar exhibition projects of other museums and memorials in the Czech Republic (the National Museum, the Žižkov Army Museum, the Prague City Museum, the Moravian Museum, the Lidice Memorial, the Memorial to the Three Resistances, the Jan Palach Memorial in Všetaty, the Museum of Literature, etc.).
The design of the libretto of the permanent exhibition also includes visualizations of the House of the Pážat, prepared by the IXA studio under the direction of doc. ing. arch. Tomáš Hradečný for the presentation of the upcoming headquarters of the Museum of Memory of the XX Century at the Centre for Architecture and Urban Planning (CAMP) on 30 November 2022. The recording is available here.
The main theme of the permanent exhibition will be Czechoslovakia and totalitarianism. The intention is to present in particular various forms of historical memory, their plurality and the general framework of the chosen period, and at the same time specific stories using three-dimensional collection objects. Modern audiovisual means will be used, which are a prerequisite for an attractive, educational and entertaining form of exhibition. The aim is also to convey education, inspiration, emotions and experiences to visitors. The permanent exhibition will be aimed at the general public, with an emphasis on second-level primary school pupils and secondary and university students. The aim is also to reach out to foreign visitors and thus promote tourism in Prague. The exposition will also be linked to mobile applications for historical walks in other places in Prague. There will also be educational programmes for the public and schools, an electronic presentation of the exhibition on the museum's website and accompanying publications.
The permanent exhibition is limited by the size of the available exhibition space, which is just under 250m2. Therefore, other parts of the House of Pheasants (courtyard, garden, library and lecture hall) will be used mainly for temporary exhibitions. The aim is to create a lively cultural institution where a number of accompanying events (debates, seminars, conferences, outdoor exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, etc.) will be held simultaneously.
The libretto contains the following basic exhibition sub-themes:
1) The unintelligible state (Czechoslovakia, its symbols and representatives: Projects, Alternatives, Illusions and Reality, introductory film screening)
2) Sovietization (Sources of Sovietization, Changes in Relationship to Russia and the USSR, Historical Fractures, Three Resistances, Propaganda, Main Exhibit, Statue of Marshal Konev)
3) Totalitarianism (Totalitarian Regimes, their relations and comparisons, ideologies, signs of totalitarianism, resistance against totalitarian regimes)
4) Old Town Square (place of memory, transformations of Prague, concepts of historical memory and politics of memory, its displacement and transformation, clashes of cultural representations)
5) Domeček (the former prison in Kapucínská Street as a place of repression, continuity in the use of the building, political repression, biographies of victims and perpetrators, the theme of rehabilitation, memory culture)
6) Technique and totalitarianism (tools of power, control, propaganda and tools of freedom and resistance, intelligence technology, samizdat, the connection between domestic opposition and exile).
At the end of 2024, AV MEDIA SYSTEMS, a. s. completed an extensive study of the technical and creative design of the permanent exhibition in the House of the Pážat in Prague's Hradčany for the Museum of Memory of the 20th Century. On the basis of this study, a competition for the contractor of the permanent exhibition will be announced.