The Prague Post
December 1st, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Hotel Prague Centre

Home » Archives » Tempo

Art attack

A scaled-down Sculpture Grande still packs a punch

By Tony Ozuna
For The Prague Post
June 27th, 2007 issue

KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Over the weekend, Brigitte Kowanz's beaconlike "Information" piece generated more vandalism than art appreciation.
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Nearby, one of Sylvie Fleury's "Mushrooms" was decapitated.
enlarge
Sculpture Grande

Various locations in Old Town, náměstí Republiky and Wenceslas Square
Through Sept. 30
For more information, check www.sculpturegrande.com

For the past four summers, Wenceslas Square has undergone a dramatic transformation thanks to Sculpture Grande, an audacious outdoor exhibition organized by Gallery Art Factory. Some of the art has fit perfectly on the otherwise ragged and sleazy business strip, especially late at night. Some of it looked weird at any time of day or night. But the exhibition always succeeded in its main goal, which was to get people to notice (and hopefully appreciate) works of public art.
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Julian Opie's "Imagine You are Driving a Blue Honda."
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Jiří David's "Cane for the Blind."
enlarge
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
Jean-Jacques Ory's "Venus and the Shoe."
enlarge
This year, however, the festival has mostly bypassed Wenceslas Square and resettled at various other points in the city center. And instead of dozens of artists, there are only seven — six prestigious artists from abroad, and one of the best-known contemporary Czech artists.
According to curator Olga Dvořáková, in past years Sculpture Grande was focused on presenting more, and larger, works of art. But this year it is about “big names” — specifically, Erwin Wurm and Brigitte Kowanz from Austria, Stephan Balkenhol from Germany, Julian Opie from the United Kingdom, Sylvie Fleury from Switzerland, the architect Jean-Jacques Ory from France and, from Prague, Jiří David. Wurm is the best-known internationally, for his obese or “fat cars” and houses.
Old Town Square has two pieces close to each other. Sylvie Fleury’s “Mushrooms” (2006) are large hallucinogenic ’shrooms in chromatic colors — gold and purplish, made of fiberglass. Unfortunately, there are only three of them, placed on a patch of lawn directly across from the Church of St. Nicholas. But they look alluring enough there.
A few meters away, beside Old Town City Hall, Brigitte Kowanz has installed “Information,” a red pole that lights up at night. Beneath it are numbers (or more precisely, measurements) on two side panels that are also painted red. Unfortunately, the piece quickly became a magnet for tourists to gather around and lean on, and sustained some heavy damage over the weekend, as did a number of other pieces in the show.
Beyond the square on Dlouhá street, Stephan Balkenhol offers “The Dancer” (2005), a wood-and-bronze ballerina standing tip-toe on a red ball, placed high above the sidewalk on a silver cylinder. The Dancer poetically faces Old Town Square with arms stretched out, as if embracing the city.
Not far away, in front of the Spanish Synagogue, Jean-Jacques Ory has one of the two sculptures truly worth going out of your way to see. His “Venus and the Shoe” (2007) is just what the name suggests — a huge, pearl-white woman’s high-heeled shoe with Botticelli’s Venus painted inside, giving the effect of looking into a gigantic mother-of-pearl sea shell. Also worth seeking out is Wurm’s “Fountain,” a concrete leg with water shooting out of one of its toes, on náměstí Republiky.
In comparison, Opie’s funny-looking car parked in front of the Hotel Josef is lightweight stuff. Titled “Imagine You are Driving a Blue Honda” (2004), it is a nearly life-size, cartoonish-looking car made of aluminum and painted metal. Mostly, it seems to infuriate drivers for taking up a precious parking space in Prague 1.
Jiří David is all alone on Wenceslas Square this year with “Cane for the Blind,” a long white walking cane with a brown handle and strap, stuck into the pavement in the middle of the square just below the statue of St. Wenceslas astride his horse. David’s cane is dedicated to Guilly D. Herbemont (1888–1980), who came up with the idea of a walking cane for blind people after helping so many of them cross the streets of Paris.
More than any of the other pieces, David’s low-key contribution seems to call out to the public to open its eyes to art — and, for that matter, to everything else around us in the city. In its isolation, it is set in perhaps the most strategic place of all.
Placed around náměstí Republiky are an additional six works by selected young European artists competing for The Prague Art Award, a 5,000 euro ($6,700/143,500 Kč) prize. According to Dvořáková, the winner will be chosen by tallied votes cast by city residents one week before the end of the exhibit.
For the moment, this is a good opportunity for residents and tourists alike to take in a thought-provoking display of public art.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


Other articles in Tempo (27/06/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.