Sculpture Line
Prague

Forest. Nostalgia for the vanishing wilderness. In a row of "parked" soft matter, they cling to horizontal trunks as the soul clings to the axis of its existence. At the same time, they carry their personal stories "on their backs".

The work has a weight of approx. 1840 kg (3.4 x 1.15 x 1.47 m height) and we can reach it by hand from the parking space to a maximum distance of 12 m.

It is not a boat in the true sense of the word. It is and it isn't. But everyone who sees it calls it that, so I guess it is. It's more of a rudimentary symbol of a boat, although in its use it's another piece from my workshop on the theme of the author's "Chairs for the City". I see the symbol as a metaphor for our time, as a vessel on which we all sail together. Depending on our personal settings, we understand that voyage as either joy and mutual friendly communication or fear and struggle. I breathe for the former, which is why this "boat" is so big and colorful. Sit on it for a while with friends, or complete strangers.

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Pieces of art have been commonplace in parks and gardens since anyone can remember. They may be a discreet accessory, an extravagant jewel, a guide or a centrepiece of the garden's design – and the main reason for its existence. An art piece and its placement in the garden can have a deeply personal meaning, or it can be the result of a meticulously focused architectural intent.

The creations of Alexandra Koláčková are immediately recognizable and her style unmistakable. And yet despite this – or maybe precisely because of this – they set the narration line of the area in motion in so many different ways... They serve as a decorative piece or a climbing frame; they can be the centre of the universe or a tiny surprise hiding under the bench... And that is why I personally value Alexandra's work so much. 

Most gardens are not meant to be just observed, but rather used in active ways – their space waiting to be touched, sat on, jogged through... Everything is permitted – even welcome. The same applies to Alexandra Koláčková's sculptures. Their simple, rounded and approachable shapes as well as their larger than life size outright beg to be climbed on. This has a tremendous benefit for a garden architect like me. A garden, with everything in it, should be inviting, welcoming and open to visitors – it should encourage exploration and discovery. In case of Alexandra's sculptures, this is often literally the case, with hands or even whole bodies inviting visitors to sit, lie or rest on them. Whatever they want and whatever they can think of, be it children, their parents or their imagination.

 Kateřina Pospíšilová, garden architect

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Figures from art history have appeared in my work since 2014. The first comes from a painting by Velasquez, (las meninas), in the center Infanta Margarete Theresa.This work was followed in 2017 by Dürer's Melencolia, by Bronzino's Eleonora of Toledo and by Zurbarán's Saint Francis. In 2023 I completed the sculpture "Gilles", based on a painting by Watteau around 1718/19.The painting shows a man standing in a solitary pose, dressed in a Pierrot costume. Gilles stands rooted to the spot with hanging arms and a melancholic, somewhat helpless look, while his fellow actors are uninterested in him and more vital, seeming to belong to another sphere.

The main idea, was to express a basic feeling that was triggered by the constant reports of catastrophes all around us, and this mood seems omnipresent to me.This expresses loneliness and sadness of human beings in front of all what happens in the world.The helpless attitude, being at the mercy and thrown into the world raises deepest questions about the meaning of life and our human
existence.The secret of the figure lies in its perceived presence and real absence - there is nobody in it, no body, no name, no individual physiognomy.

„Gilles“ could be any of us.

First of all, I thought this organic form of a spiral could be a counterpoint to the place's strong, mighty, and cold architecture. You can go inside it and feel a completely different space, as the spiral draws you inside it, away from the concrete, stone, and glass, into another world. I think the spiral at this place can provide a contrast point between the architecture on the one side and the trees in the park on the other side. All my sculptures have organic and soft forms and because they are always put in the urban space, they are counterpoints to the architecture.

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The statue refers to Mao Zedong's policy of the same name, which resulted in a huge famine. It is an allegory of some people's attempts to make 'great leaps' too, but it also symbolises the West's exuberance – a monster that rejoices and does not rejoice, balancing on a diving board. However, when he reaches the edge and wants to jump, there is no pool at the bottom.

"Matter Fores", the contents of the holes are also matter and the drilling from the side shows it to be another form of matter, perhaps part of a ritual object or used for some other unknown purpose.

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Forest. Nostalgia for the vanishing wilderness. In a row of "parked" soft matter, they cling to horizontal trunks as the soul clings to the axis of its existence. At the same time, they carry their personal stories "on their backs".

Locked in a metal sphere, a bubble, a prison and isolation at a time when it was necessary to keep a social distance and communication only took place in the online space. The sculpture is a memento of the pandemic, yet it is also a reminder of contemporary life, when, seated in front of monitors, we reflect the rest of the world only by seeing it through parallel viewports, and our surroundings are mirrored in the reflections of the glass....

The work consists of three simple bodies that are connected to each other in such a way that a dynamic upward movement from horizontal to vertical is created. A block, a cube and a section of a circle are sufficient to create the impression of movement. The slightly offset arrangement and the implied rotation in the vertical form the basis of the dynamics.

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The statue comes from the Self-Portrait Transformation cycle. It is a profile line of my face which I am not afraid to deform, rotate and thus create a new view of my appearance. The name of the sculpture is Two because every man in the world tries to find himself and most often finds himself and can communicate with himself when seeing own appearance in the mirror. That is why I create mirror images of myself: to find myself through art and make it possible for others to go through this journey, to think and find themselves in this fast-paced time.

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The sculpture is a part of the FAT cycle. The whole cycle is dedicated to author‘s fight against the inconspicuous and silent killer – sugar which harms him as well as millions of people around the world. The size of the tongue shows enormous craving for sweets which is even highlighted byirresistible pink colour of cakes. For the auhor, this is the way to deal with addiction and point out both the social problem and the need to fight this deadly trap.

A piece of work from the Drawing in Space (Kresby v prostoru) cycle. The Stumps in the Dark are inspired by children‘s play – waving with a burning stump taken out of the fire. It is an attempt to record and transfer the movement of a hot stump in the dark into a material.

As the artist himself says, he could define his work as geometric abstractionism, if he had to name it. His shapes are always angular and defined. His sculptural work is very closely related to his paintings, and he has been told several times that his sculptures are essentially three-dimensional paintings, which he agrees with. His works have no titles, which he considers a necessity of abstractionism. Basically, he is always looking for a balance between unbalanced shapes.

Exhibition cycle Sculpture Line Prague on the theme WE GROW TOGETHER.

Johannes Pfeiffer is an installation artist. This means that he works primarily on site-specific projects. Both indoors and outdoors.

His passion is a dialogue with the space, with the respective architecture, with the respective history. He deals with the architecture and spirit of churches, as well as ancient buildings or abandoned factory halls. He tries to trace the "genius loci" of a place. To do this, he needs access to unconscious knowledge, he needs language and his own ability to use this language to express what he has experienced.

In this way, Johannes Pfeiffer succeeds with his installations in creating a dialogue in which both the spiritual and the material become visible, something we would hardly see without the artwork. He addresses our inner self, and so the viewer is also involved in the dialogue.

The Rotunda inspired me to create this title. A beautiful title for an art installation on Prague's oldest building. I imagine a beam of light hitting the ground and illuminating the place where the Rotunda is to be built. It's like reliving the choice of place. The white threads are like rays of light hitting the ground. For me, it's like the union of the material with the immaterial. Or a journey from the material to the immaterial. The white rays are thus meant to help the willing viewer to lift their thoughts to the heights, to the supernatural, to the immaterial.

The goal is to follow the point of disappearance with the white lines and to reach a moment of reflection that allows us to access from the material to the spiritual, to the mental.

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I have been thinking about the theme of the Last Supper for two and a half years. I was tempted by the attempt to express in sculpture that moment in which two so contradictory things come together - the awareness of what is about to happen and the apparent calm of the meal ceremony. But all the ideas were too descriptive. Until I made a double sculpture called "Chair for Joseph Beuys" ( photo at www.kaspar-sculptures.cz). It's two exactly the same chairs with crosses for backs, facing each other and allowing Beyus to come in, sit down and talk to himself. I then used this double sculpture as a basis for the drawings of "The Last Supper", which consists of 13 identical chairs that are only dimensionally different from Beuys'.

Thirteen chairs with crosses for backs was the beginning. But it was only the removal of the table that gave this 13-piece installation meaning and moved me to where I wanted to be in the expression of the idea. I mean, in this case it wasn't so much about the food, but more about the dialogue between the diners.

In the installation, there are 6 pairs of chairs facing each other and the last one, the 13th, in the front. They are all the same, and it is not clear whether the one at the head is Jesus, Judas or anyone else the viewer can imagine.

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The sculpture Unnatural Habitat II is a continuation of the theme/exhibition from 2021. As the title suggests, the artist deals with the theme of removing something natural from its immediate conditions and placing it where it does not belong. The sculpture is an ironic response to civilization expanding into places it should not.

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As the artist himself says, he could define his work as geometric abstractionism, if he had to name it. His shapes are always angular and defined. His sculptural work is very closely related to his paintings, and he has been told several times that his sculptures are essentially three-dimensional paintings, which he agrees with. His works have no titles, which he considers a necessity of abstractionism. Basically, he is always looking for a balance between unbalanced shapes.

The monumental golden fly depicts the controversy over what everyone wants.
The sculpture was inspired by Adolf Heyduk's poem and the fascination with the insect itself. The fly, so small, useless and annoying, yet beautiful when viewed in detail under a microscope. A fascinating biological machine that we are unable to perceive with the naked eye. And that is why it has been magnified to a superhuman scale, so that its individual details can be admired, and so that when confronted, a polemic can be stirred up over its own greatness and perhaps even over happiness, so fragile, so seemingly complex and yet sometimes so easy when one is able to perceive the little
things.

The first impulse of this realization was an intention to complement an intimate place of a private garden with seating with sculpture. A bench in the form of a stylized woman has been created and you can nestle down with a book in her arms or sit down face to face to a close person in a confidential conversation. By being placed in the public space, the statue has gained another meaning that is firmly embedded in my work: acting as an island to enliven the street that you usually just pass through, as an opportunity for a short stop enriched with unexpected aesthetic perception, and as a means of rest.

This sculpture was created at a time of sanitary crisis, as a psychological opportunity to distance oneself from the everyday problems associated with restrictions. The view of the head in the sky encourages daydreaming.

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The sculpture was created as the third variant of the statue of the Reader, originally intended to be installed in front of a public library building. Paradoxically, however, already at a time when the order was long gone and no library showed interest in it. Nevertheless, I then gradually became very interested in the issue of the statue of a man immersed in the world unfolding in the book. Through the reader's statue I wanted to portray both the reader and the imaginative world of the book. I used an armchair for this purpose. The armchair is a soft and soothing wall that protects us from the pragmatic world around us allowing us to escape into the worlds of imagination and fantasy. It is a dreamy armchair, and the reader is intentionally an anonymous and symbolic figure, easily interchangeable with any reader. At the same time, the armchair adds monumentality to the statue reinforcing the significance and importance of this fragile theme. Last but not least, it is also necessary to pay tribute to the world of paper book at a time when it is threatened (and so are we!) by the aggressive world of information technology and castrated e - books.

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The rider is the fourth sculpture of the four-piece horse sculpture. It was created between 2010 and 2013. One cast with a smooth surface in a red polyester resin is in Kampa Museum, another one with the whole statue is in a private collection and is part of the golf areal near Brno. Bronze část with smooth surface is part of Kamenný dvůr area. I cast the Rider and the whole sculpture into peanut shells structure and also in the structure of walnut shells. The rider from the peanut shells is made also from bronze.

The pair of happy pigs, executed in white stylized form, is the work of Slovak artist Martin Sedlák. The seemingly banal motif, which may surprise some, is part of the artist's strategy to upset the habitual ways of perception and experiment with different materials, motifs and forms.

Michal Trpák belongs to artists for whom art is a challenge to communicate and an incentive to develop their imagination. His ten-legged, striped Mazlik grazes on the grass like an overgrown stuffed animal. It may be made of concrete and marble, but it still beckons to be stroked, as the artist encourages.

One of the most renowned Czech architects Martin Rajniš likes to cross borders. He creates objects that become distinctive works of art with aesthetic, social and utilitarian functions. Hostivař's Včelín refers to medieval towers with its historicizing octagonal shape and weathervane. But of course, it is primarily home to a bee colony that produces unique golf honey.

David Černý's dominant sculpture In Utero is one of his most important works. In Utero, a six-metre sculpture of a pregnant woman kneeling and holding her head, made of stainless steel, can be perceived by everyone in their own way, but we offer one possible interpretation.

The Fall from 1967 is an emblematic work by Stanislav Kolíbal, a doyen of Czech art and probably the most internationally known Czech artist today. The work was created at the height of the free upsurge of Czech society and art during the increasingly relaxed "sixties", but its message seemed to foreshadow what would become reality in just one year: the fall from freedom into more than twenty years of normalization.

It's been a while since architecture has seen itself in artistic practices, and vice versa. Especially the transformation and play of facades. The recently deceased sculptor Jiří Beránek is a shining example of this, as the sculptural cladding of the main building of the Hostivař golf complex has made not only this architecture and its architect famous worldwide, but also the sculptor who invented this cladding so uniquely.

Lukáš Rais's work is characterized by the use of industrially produced components, especially metal rubes. The cluster of pipes placed in the Hostivař playground proves the correctness and expediency of this way. It can be read equally well as an aesthetic achievement or as a certain metaphor for the existence of man in contemporary society.

When looking at Chramost's work Shark in the Gulf, memories of Spielberg's famous film Jaws will surely come to mind, which at the time terrified audiences. The shark's fin, however, is made of concrete, so it is stable and not life-threatening.

Scattered around the golf course were stone jewels - sculptures by Pavel Opočenský, for whom stone is a challenge to make it transparent and lighter, and to work with it as surprisingly as this hard and material medium allows.

Michal Trpák probably already knows that we humans will be replaced by humanoids. We don't know if they will look as the sculptor imagines them, i.e. like marching officials, but certainly when they come in the future to play golf in the future, they might be amused by the sculptor's idea. But beware! Perhaps the artist is warning us with his work if we have not already become humanoids!

The main purpose of this work was to connect the tee box with the fairway on one of the new holes. As there are two holes facing each other on this part of the course, it was necessary to create a covered passage around the lake to ensure the safety of the players. A total of 50 wooden frames in a row with regular spacing create the illusion of impermeable walls when passing through the tunnel. When viewed from the side, however, the tunnel almost completely disappears and only thin partitions remain.

The figure of a walking man with his arm extended forward is perhaps, as the name suggests, a governor, but also a warrior who fell into Hostivaře from another planet. It is assembled like a kit and reminds of sci-fi movies. It's made of metal frames, which confuses the sculptor's fans a bit, because otherwise he likes natural wooden materials.

You may not know this, but Jakub Flejšar is a snowboarder and a snowboard coach, and they, as is well known, like to move and run and then also rest. And because Jakub is also a sculptor, he wants his sculptures to make that experience visible. In a stylized and humorous way.

He created the dwarfs in 1985 for the H. Hůlov Brothers Gallery on their farm in Kostelec nad Černými lesy. The unofficial event was a success and Kurt decided to repeat it in the capital on an official basis at the beginning of perestroika. Not that he longed for artistic satisfaction, let alone fame or money. He was simply annoyed that if artistic ballast, considered art by the cultural strategists, could be presented in public, why couldn't something worthwhile be exhibited at least occasionally...

Sculptures of so-called drones, in which the artist addresses his lifelong interest in the human figure. By completely reducing the figure to a lapidary shape, he has achieved a very impressive and, typically for him, humorous, even grotesque result.

The sculpture of Trubkouna was made according to the author's precise instructions by the private company for the production of containers Eurointermetall s. r. o. Lucie and Dalibor Kamensky in Rýmařov, who kindly lent the sculpture. (They also made, for example, the sculptures of flowers by Stanislav Diviš, which were on display at his exhibition in Kutná Hora last year.)

Large heads or other heads á la bulb is a long-standing theme of Kurt's. The human head is a mysterious object, it can glow with ideas, goodness and can be concreted with stupidity and aggression. And so by looking at them we can meditate on what we are. Heads as non-portraits of all kinds have been perpetrated since at least the mid-1970s. Four two-meter ones were at Jan Palach Square in 2011, at the National Technical Library in 2013, and at the Landscape Festival in Prague. In 2016 in České Budějovice, drunks smashed some of the Headers. Now there is one here. But it's only in our heads.

The event is held under the auspices of the Mayor of Prague 2 Ing. Alexandra Udženija.

A statue, running or speeding off, is a symbol of the premises on which it is located. A fragment of the bobsled is transferred into a surreal level where it is carried to the intended destination (the track?) by two pairs of legs.

Coloured glazed ceramics on a reinforced concrete shell. A utility ceramic sofa with organic shapes brings playfulness and optimism into a given public space. In the busy street full of hustle and bustle, the sculpture gives an impression of an island of peace and good cheer, a place where you can “recharge your batteries” with a brief rest.