Invitation to the unveiling of the new headstone for the Neumark family

In 2021, I managed to discover that at the Central Cemetery in Brno, there were remains of the once iconic industrial Neumark family located in an unmarked grave in group 106. This grave site was also currently being offered for a new lease by the Cemetery Administration. I was able to rent this grave site at the end of the year with the intention of revitalizing it and creating a new tombstone that would honor the Neumark family in a dignified manner. Therefore, in 2022, I approached eight Brno architectural studios with a design competition for the new tombstone, from which the winning proposal by the studio newwork emerged. You can find the entire course of the competition here:
The winning design is inspired by the texture of woven fabric and simultaneously aims to remotely reference the original tombstone of the family, which was destroyed in 1988. A reinforced concrete slab is set on the axis of the four-meter-wide grave site, into which the tombstone itself is anchored. The horizontal surface alternates between protruding stone beams that are 80 mm wide and 160 mm high, and recessed beams that are 130 mm wide and 100 mm high. There are seven recessed fields, and in the three-quarters distance from the edge of the grave, pillars rise up to a height of 1.3 m. In each pillar, one letter from the surname NEUMARK is carved. Across the horizontal beams, there is a transverse beam at the front of the grave that extends over the edges, on which the names of the buried family members are engraved.
The tombstone, valued at 450 thousand crowns, was realized by the stone sculpting company Kamenosochařství Kvasice, with the support of the South Moravian Region, the Statutory City of Brno, and a public collection. It was installed at the site in June 2023, and the unveiling will take place on Monday, July 17, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. in the presence of the descendants of the family, who will arrive in Brno from Great Britain and Switzerland.
Authors: Studio NEW WORK | Susanna Brunová, Svatopluk Sládeček, Zuzana Zbellová
Collaboration: Jaroslav Matoušek, Lenka Šrahůlková
Location: Central Cemetery of the City of Brno, group 106, numbers 98-100, Štýřice, Brno-center
Design: 2022
Realization: 2023
Tombstone realization: Kamenosochařství Kvasice
Total costs: 450,000 CZK