1.1. — 31.12.2020

Sculpture Line
Prague 2020

Uninstalled

The sculpture of Rhinoceros was created from a simple idea - to use the protective armor of one species of African rhino, consisting of massive leathery and horned plates to create a fantastic figure of a rhino knight - a colossus that will combine human and animal elements. At the same time, the sculpture symbolically points to the need for world protection of a beautiful creature from the African wilderness, which, thanks to human stupidity, superstition and greed, is gradually disappearing from the earth's surface. It is common knowledge that rhinos have been systematically hunted over the last century for their horn, which is sought after by the superstition - that the powder from it cures male impotence. The forgotten theme of the knight in armor is one of the distinctive sculptural themes that the author returns to the scene of contemporary sculpture after a long time, of course in a transformed form, which proves that no theme is ever doomed to permanent oblivion.

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.

Uninstalled

KLECOHLAVY V and VI 1995, 2010
The first Klecohlavy were made from the riveted strip in 1987, another from the iron wire for the backyard at the Vladislav Hall at the Prague Castle exhibition in 1995. The last three of the thick logs were for Mrs. Meda Mládková to the backyard of Museum Kampa.
Human heads are a prison of monstrous stupidity. However, the cage does not prevent anything better from blowing there, and thanks to the gaps between the bars, it can also blow into other cages.

Since 24.11.2020 moved from Smetanovo nábřeží to Prague-Bubny.

Martin Steinert is a guest of the residency programme of the Goethe-Institut. He will stay in Prague for three weeks and create his work at the occasion of the Sculpture Line festival. During his stay, he is going to create the Prague version of his “Wooden Cloud”.

For several years, the work of sculptor Martin Steinert has included spatial installations made of ordinary wooden laths. It was people’s great interest in mostly several-week processes of creating objects in public space which has led Martin Steinert to the idea of involving people directly into his work.

In June 2015, Martin Steinert built a monumental sculpture of almost 2,000 meters of wooden slats in the apse of the church of St. John (Johanneskirche) in Saarbrücken. During the four-week creation of the installation, visitors to the church were invited not only to watch the sculptor's work, but even to take part in it themselves. Approximately 1,200 people wrote their personal wishes on prepared wooden slats which Martin Steinert then incorporated into his installation. Their wishes, formulated on the slats as individual manifestos of dreams, hopes and expectations, branched out into thousands of synapses. In this way, an art project called Wooden Cloud – Die Architektur der Wünsche (Architecture of Wishes) was created and set out on its journey.

The wooden cloud floats from Saarbrücken through selected cities of the world and it is always created in a new form in prominent public places. Temporary installations made of wooden slats with inscriptions on them become snapshots of social atmosphere. So far, the wooden cloud has stopped on its way in St. Petersburg in 2016, in Berlin in 2017, in Paris in 2018, and the fifth “Wooden Cloud” was created in Al-Istiqlal Park in Ramallah in 2019. Two more wooden clouds are going to be created in 2020 in Prague and Tirana.

I am of the opinion that an artist, and above all a sculptor, should not describe and explain his work, as this deprives the viewer of the freedom and space to interpret and perceive the work in his or her own way.

However, to describe what was the motive for the creation of this sculpture, it is simple: It is an eternal contradiction of our Christian moral, peaceful code, and at the same time a constant need to develop ever more sophisticated weapons of mass destruction.

The first impulse of this realization was an intention to complement an intimate place of a private garden with a 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 inliven 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.

We all suspect that there is constant movement in the endless space, that there are various powers, scales and relations at play that are still beyond humanity's ability to understand. I often wondered about this and tried to give shape to this feeling – in the form of an artifact, through which I would provide myself with tangible, positive answers to these questions. Thus originated the idea to create a symbol of constant demise and rebirth of the Cosmos: the Cosmic Child.

Uninstalled

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

Fluorescent, delicate, light: the five boats, designed by the visual artist Johannes Pfeiffer, have found their destination on the banks of the Vltava River where it runs towards the city centre of Prague.

The old wall of the dock they are fixed on, thus becomes a boathouse for these little boats, which seem to be waiting for anybody who is in need of them.

The title of the work itself, Lifeboats, suggests rescue vessels, small sloops that are used for rescuing people. But approaching them one makes a bitter discovery: the ships are leaking. The material they are made of is a metal net and therefore not impenetrable. The boats which at closer look seem more like fragile leaves than solid vessels can´t transport anybody, can´t rescue anybody as water comes in.

This work of art is a symbol of the difficult period which has taken humankind unprepared, in which no lifeboat seems safe enough to rescue all.

But although the installation radiates uncertainty, the artist, conveys the awareness that there is still hope. And then the little boats change dimensions for the third time and become burning torches. Thanks to their fluorescent colour which at night makes them visible also from far away they change into beacons of hope, which give comfort by signalising the existence of a new accessible way.  

Giulia Cordò

"The artwork Lifeboats is installed with financial support of the Czech-German Fund for the Future."

The composition consists of individual, mutually separated parts of man - the human body. Due to all the hard work and exhaustion of what he experiences or has experienced, he falls apart physically and mentally. It doesn't matter if it's caused by one exhausting moment or a lifelong effort to achieve something.

Uninstalled

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". 

My constant thinking about myself, about human being, about the individual and his position in the systém of humanity, his apparent importance, which is in fact insignificant and meaningless, led me to display human beings, individuals and their roles in the world. Actually, we are only empty, motionless cases standing (sitting) at the same place convinc ed of our uniqueness. All my sculptures, also this one, are often an abstract representation of the human emptiness unreasonably living in this world.