Brno is looking for artists to create a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust

Brno - The death of 12,000 Brno Jews and hundreds of Roma who perished in concentration camps during World War II is to be commemorated by a memorial in Brno. The city council has announced an art competition for its design. The monument is to be located in 28th October Square. This space is considered suitable by the Jewish community of Brno as well as the Roma. There are no technical obstacles, such as underground networks, preventing the placement of the monument there, said city hall spokesman Pavel Žára today to ČTK.
    According to the terms of the art competition available in the public procurement information system, the design must clearly express the symbolism of the event - the suffering of many thousands of Jewish and Roma victims. "The memorial should be designed to allow for dignified commemorative events in its immediate vicinity. At the same time, it should contribute to the enhancement and cultivation of the given space," the authors of the brief wrote.
    Artists can request additional materials from the city hall until April. They can send their proposals until the end of August, and a jury is expected to meet in September. It will include city council members, including the mayor's deputies Jana Bohuňovská and Robert Kotzian (both ODS), architects, a curator, and the director of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Marek Pokorný.
    Brno plans to spend approximately 4.5 million crowns on the memorial. However, this year the city council only plans to select a winner. After that, the councilors will decide again whether to allocate funds for the memorial and whether the selected artist will begin work on the project.
    The initiation of the memorial was advocated by former mayor's deputy Daniel Rychnovský (KDU-ČSL). He emphasized that the Holocaust had a significant impact on the history of Brno and its residents. Only hundreds of people remained from the once large Jewish community after the war. "When we boast about the Tugendhat Villa, which is a UNESCO monument, we must say the letter B, that it was built by Jewish owners," said Rychnovský.
    In recent years, memorials commemorating the history and personalities of the 20th century have been created in Brno. In Brno-Bohunice, where part of the village was demolished to build a housing estate during the past regime, a memorial to the victims of communist arbitrariness was recently unveiled. The former Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš also has his own statue in Brno.