In the square in Brno, the installation of the bronze monument Hrachovina has begun

Brno - A technically demanding installation of the bronze monument Hrachovina started today at Mendlovo Square in Brno. The author is the artistic foundryman and sculptor Jaromír Gargulák, who succeeded in a competition announced on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the founder of genetics, Gregor Johann Mendel. The anniversary, accompanied by celebrations, scientific conferences, and other events, fell last year. However, the renovation of the square near the monastery where Mendel worked has been delayed.

The base for the monument is already prepared, and trucks are now gradually bringing the individual components of Hrachovina to the square. According to the workers involved in the project, the installation will take several days.

According to Gargulák's design, the monument is intended to be passable, consisting of several horizontal and vertical elements. Dominating is a square with 16 steles in the form of pea pods, on top of which are peas in colors and shapes proportionately corresponding to Mendel's discoveries.

Previously mentioned costs amount to 20 million crowns. The total weight of the monument is 12 tons.

The results of the public competition for the statue for Mendlovo Square were criticized last year by a group of artists, academics, and theorists of visual arts. About a year ago, they published an open letter in which they described Gargulák's work as "literally illustrative to the point of being banal." Brno's mayor Markéta Vaňková (ODS) responded at the time that respected experts were on the jury and the contract with the artist had already been signed. Gargulák had also already begun work on the monument at the foundry beforehand.