The temporary ice sculpture aims to contribute to the debate about Malostranské náměstí

source: GHMP

Prague - A temporary sculpture that will also change over time has been installed today at Malostranské náměstí in Prague. It was created by students of the Academy of Fine Arts and consists of a four-meter high ice block and a reservoir. Depending on the surrounding temperature, the column is expected to melt and gradually fill the reservoir. The exhibition is titled Procedural Installation and will run until February 26. According to the school's teacher, Dušan Zahoranský, the sculpture aims to combat the anachronistic placement of statues in public spaces that once existed there but, for historical reasons, do not exist today.

The authors of the installation are Artur Magrot, Martin Chlanda, and Jakub Rajnoch from the Studio of Intermedia Creation. "I feel there is an appeal against the distorted thinking about art in public space that is emerging in Prague in the form of attempts for anachronistic returns of historical statues, such as the Marian Column or the Radecký Monument," the head of the studio, Dušan Zahoranský, told reporters today. "The fact that in the 21st century some statue is moved to a place that has changed in the meantime for a lot of money is, in my opinion, something that should be criticized and resisted against this anachronistic type of dealing with public space and in public space," he said.

The work was prepared by AVU with the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague and in collaboration with the Institute of Planning and Development of Prague. It works with the theme of temporality and the variability of collectively shared ideas and their artistic forms. The curator of the project, Jitka Hlaváčková, stated that the main purpose of the exhibition is to stimulate public debate about what public space means to people today, what functions and ways of use it currently offers. According to her, Malostranské náměstí is an excellent example of how public spaces and their uses have changed.

Last year, Prague removed long-term parked cars from the lower part of Malostranské náměstí and placed several chairs with tables there. It plans to reconstruct the area and says it should be a meeting place. There has been a long-standing initiative that wants to return the statue of Marshal Radecký to the square. The monument was removed in 1919 as a symbol of the monarchy. Since then, it has been in the Lapidary of the National Museum.

"The outcome of the revitalization of the square is unfortunate; the return of the Radecký monument would also be, in my opinion, unfortunate," said Magdalena Juříková, director of the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague, today. She emphasized that this is her opinion, not the city's opinion. The city establishes the gallery, and the gallery is the custodian of all public sculptures in Prague.

Klára Mišunová from the Prague Institute of Planning and Development stated that the square's renovation is not yet finished, and traffic is being addressed. However, the proposal does include the statue of Radecký, she said.