In 2025, Prague's Signal Festival goes from four nights to forever

From a shaky experiment to an event that now attracts 300,000 visitors a year, Signal Festival has become one of Prague’s brightest cultural beacons—showcasing installations on par with those seen at the Guggenheim Bilbao or Paris’s Grand Palais.

The 2025 outing will be the festival’s most ambitious yet, weaving connections between technology, nature, and humanity across two festival circuits, four days, and 20 installations throughout Prague.

But this year’s edition, set to illuminate monasteries, waterfronts, synagogues, palaces, and parks, is built to last. In October, the festival will open Prague’s first digital gallery space transforming a much-anticipated autumn event into a year-round cultural experience.

The thirteenth annual Signal will light up some of Prague's most ancient, sacred spaces. Among them the National Gallery’s St. Agnes Monastery, where visitors can experience Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall), a monumental work by the late American artist Bill Viola. A pioneer of large-scale video installations, Viola was a regular at MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Getty. The installation evokes the soul in the space after death.

In addition to the traditional videomapping at St. Ludmila’s Basilica at Náměstí Míru another striking architectural facades will be transformed with futuristic projections. Italian studio MammasONica will turn the nearly 70-meter Old Town Hall tower into OVERLOЯD, a projection exploring the tension between data and emotion, using two walls of the historic landmark as its canvas.

The festival will also showcase Czech talent. Pavla Sceranková’s interactive installation in Riegrovy Sady transforms visitors into collaborators in a constellation-inspired artwork, while Petr Korn’s studio presents Signal’s first-ever 3D water-wall projection on the Dvořák embankment.

Speaking at a press conference Tuesday, City Councilor Jan Wolf recalled the festival’s rocky start: “In those first years, it was hard. People weren’t sure if the festival would continue or not. Today we see that without Signal it’s difficult to imagine Prague’s cultural calendar.”

Wolf also pointed to Signal’s role in drawing attention to overlooked corners of the city, such as the area around the Florenc metro. “Reviving spaces like this is important, and I believe we’ll continue to make Prague more beautiful through future editions of the festival," he said.

But Signal isn’t just about beauty. One of this year's most provocative installations, Grill Flame, along the Vinohrady route near u Vodárny, takes critical aim at Prague’s housing crisis.

“This is a very strong, very noisy installation, a lot of sound, a lot of fire, and yes, grilling, The artists will literally grill furniture," said Czech artist Rafani. "The work comments on the absurdity of the housing crisis and the economics around it.”

Perhaps Signal’s boldest move this year isn’t another spectacular installation—it’s permanence. Oct. 1 will see the opening of Signal Space, a year-round digital art gallery located in Prague’s 19th-century Old Town Market.

“For years, we concentrated all the energy, talent, and finances into just four days then it disappeared,“ said Signal founder Martin Pošta.

“We asked ourselves how we could extend this energy throughout the year. Signal Space is our answer. It’s designed for visitors, a place where you don’t just look at installations but become part of them. That’s something rarely seen in the Czech Republic.”