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Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Weird Art in Prague

Reading from the Lonely Planet, we discovered that there are a number of weird art installations out and about in the city of Prague, and were fascinated enough to stake them out as much as we could. The work of contemporary artist, David Cerny, the controversial and funny pieces, are easy to track down with a map and the inclination.

Our first piece was Hanging Out, a man hanging from his hand above a street in the New Town, which was pointed out to us on one our our walking tours. After finishing our walking tour on one of our days, we then made our way out to the TV Tower, to check out the crawling Babies all over it. They were cute and disturbing, all at once!



We managed to find the back gate to the German Embassy, practically climbing through fences to get to it, to spot the car on legs, as a symbol of the displaced people who camped on these grounds after the war, seeking asylum.

The Pissing Men in the grounds of the Kafka Museum had us intrigued, as they spelt out infamous Czech sayings! The people-watching around this one was hilarious.

Cerny's Dead Horse is his version of the upright and regal one in Wenceslas Square of triumphant King Wenceslas, tucked away in one of the shopping centres off the Square.

We did walk for an age to find the one at Cerny's studio, being the Futura Gallery, only to find it removed for repairs, or a new installation. The piece features the bottom half of two men, bent into a wall - you can climb up ladders and stick your head up the bums, and view a video of two prominent Czech politicians feeding each other gruel....random!

This guy has recently caused ripples in Europe with an installation depicting each of the EU nations in not the most favourable of lights, and it seems he has new ideas, and new controversies every so often.

5 comments:

  1. The "Hanging Man" would certainly disturb me. It's interesting the artist is drawn to these more shocking displays. I'll be in Prague next month so I'll have to keep an eye out for these.

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    1. It is reportedly Sigmund Freud, life size hanging up there. Disturbing indeed!

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  2. OK, the car with the legs is terrifying. It's the stuff of nightmares...

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    1. A ha ha, definitely quirky and out of the ordinary!
      Cerny certainly grabs your attention with these!

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  3. OK, so that car with the legs is terrifying. It's the stuff nightmares are made of...

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