Czech Nativity Scenes
1999–2000, bronze diorama, forty pieces total, Charles IV – Europe on the Moldau, 200 × 58 × 94 cm; Church reformer Jan Hus, 140 × 55 × 68 cm; Emperor Rudolf II – mysticism, magic and science, 130 × 100 × 78 cm, DonGiovanni, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Miloš Forman in Prague, 98 × 55 × 88 cm; Turnaround after World War I, 130 × 80 × 132 cm; Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, 110 × 37 × 102 cm; Brundibár – last performance, 170 × 50 × 70 cm; Blasted Behemoth, 150 × 91 × 94 cm; Desire or Adventure, 80 × 34 × 53 cm; Prague Spring 1968, 210 × 52 × 102 cm; September 1989 in Prague, 90 × 74 × 98 cm; The Rolling Stones at Václav Havel’s, 160 × 115 × 77 cm; Untitled Sculpture I, 46 × 29 × 41 cm; Untitled Sculpture II, 60 × 29 × 58 cm
I myself thought for a long time, because you probably can’t call it a sculpture. Maybe narrative objects, a conglomeration of my infantilism, little trains. But the most precise is perhaps: I was the director and screenwriter of a bronze film, and of course I had co-workers for it. Those who particularly stand out are Martin Péč, Honza Novotný, Zuzana Bernasovská, Dalibor Bača, Eckerhard Böhm. I want to thank all of them. It took a long time to come together, and when I reached the point where I wanted to blow it all off, I got this idea and I realized it using “islands,” and especially bronze as the material. That instant of ironic enchantment, solidifying, freezing history appealed to me. It seemed sufficiently perverse.
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