Sculptures exhibition

Srotozemstan is back! Respectively, the first statue made from old electronics appeared close to metro station Andel. It ‘looks’ at pedestrians from its seven metres height. In Prague, it appeared for the third time, as it is a mascot of the event, inspiring folk to recycle their used electronics. The organizer of the happening is traditionally ASEKOL, a non-profit association dealing with electric-trash recycling.

So right now, if you have some electric devices you don’t use, now it is the good time to get rid of them – bring them to Andel and help the Srotozemstan to grow. The main statue will grow until Thursday, which is also the day when thrash contributors can win something in a draw.

Czech Srotozemstan was inspired by English WEEE man, the robotic statue, that was created by Paul Bonomini in London.

Contemporary sculpture in a broader field (Rosalind Krauss) is characterized by the transcending of borders in both operational and material areas. Hans Kupelwieser (b. 1948) has worked in the latter area at the College of Apllied Arts in Vienna. He includes new materials, not only within the field of experimentation, as in arte povera, but with an almost linguistic expression that brings new meaning to the materials. A flat rubber or solid steel sculpture provides a screen upon which letters are punched as blank characters, displaying quotations of well-known philosophers, thereby conveying a new function.

This combination of the extended use of materials and operation between form and function is the field of analysis in which Hans Kupelwieser moves. The materials he uses, such as aluminium, occasionally lead to reflection of historical perspectives (see Andy Warhol to Walter Pichler), as seen in the perforated sculptures displayed at the notable “New Ways of Displaying Plastic” exhibition in 1982, at Neue Galerie, Graz, or in his current pneumatic sculptures, one of them now being permanently located in the Austrian Sculpture Park near Graz.

In this way, Hans Krupelwieser succeeds in creating a third independent position between Erwin Wurm and Franz West in contemporary Austrian sculpture, which makes a clean break from the period of abstraction and represents a substantial further development in post-modern sculptural concepts.

Jungmannovo sqare 18, Prague 1, Mo-Fr 10-17. the exhibition lasts until 30th November 2007

Srotozemstan is the second event of this kind in the Czech republic; the main mission is to inform about the necessity of ecological processing of used electrical appliance.

Czech Srotozemstan was inspired by English WEEE man, the robotic statue, that was created by Paul Bonomini in London. The idea is to transform trash into art sculptures.

There were used all the old electronic devices, that were given away to the recycle containers at Andel. Old fridges, vacuums, computer technology, audio and TV systems, any of the devices that should not end up in regular trash.

The opening ceremony took place on Tuesday 12th, and since any passer-by could watch both Srotozemstan growing, and the accompanying programme. There are also music, recycling workshops, and kids programmes, and those are going to continue at Andel until 22th September 2007.

Now it is up to us, to vote for the best one. We can vote here and we can even win a prize.

For the fifth time Prague hosts the open-air festival of sculptures in the centre of the city. Sculpture Grande Prague 07 will present works of seven world’s famous artists whose works are regularly on display in significant exhibitions all over the world.

Unlike previous years, the sculptures are placed more in the Old Town and namesti Republiky, instead of the Wenceslas Square. The chosen artists are Stephan Balkenhol, Sylvie Fleury, Julian Opie, Jean-Jacques Ory, Briggitte Kowanz, Erwin Wurm and Jiri David.

The festival is accompanied with the competition Generation Next where young people from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria present their sculptures in namesti Republiky. Sculpture Grande Prague 07 will be held until 30th September 2007.

Creation inspired by a woman’s body. This might be a title for a new exhibition of modern art in the National Gallery. The exhibition presents work of French sculptor Gaston Lachaise whose bronze sculptures representing woman’s torsos aroused mixed feeling in the public. Sculptures come from the years 1903 – 1935.

A set of more than 60 sculptures of various sizes is accompanied by 20 author’s drawings. Some of the sculptures in this exhibition are so erotic that the author himself was afraid to expose them at his time.

Lachise’s work could be seen also in France, England, Italy and Hungary. You can visit the exhibition in the Prague National Gallery Fair Palace (Veletrzni palac, Dukelskych hrdinu 47 street) till 7th January 2007. The entrance fee is 50,- CZK, reduced price is 20,- CZK.

From yesterday till the end of September Wenceslas Square and Na Prikopech street nearby will be the location of the fourth international festival of large scale sculptures. The exhibition seems to be in spirit of “the bigger, the better” – there may even be possibly a sculpture measuring incredible 240 metres.

More than 40 artists created 19 sculptures that in the eyes of some beautify and in the view of others scar the city.

The star of this year will be worldwide famous Dennis Oppenheim. One of his artworks is called “Air Closets” – a kind of a tree with branches ended in a set of sinks and toilets. This description suggests the displayed objects should entertain but they should also lead to contemplation.

Czech artists will be represented by Darina Alsterova who will be trapped for a few hours in a displayed cube. Milan Knizak with colleagues created 12 huge concrete letters saying “art is for nothing”. You can take a seat on one of them (they can serve as benches) and think about this kind of art. Art is namely subjective and this applies even more so for the modern art.

Sculpture Grande is an every year open air exhibition of statues. Exhibition ground is Prague Wenceslas square, where you can see really big statues.

The exhibition is between 19th July and 30 October and you can see there many styles of modern art in a statuary for free. There will be many “most” things in the exhibition.

Biggest statue will be National museum itself, transformed into a sculpture. Highest sculpture will have 11 meters. Most famous author is Dennis Oppenheim and most authors work at sculpture “12 words”. Most visible is statue the Tsunami. It will create an illusion of water sweeping over speculator as is was in 2004 at Sri Lanka and Thailand.