Art of Czech Republic: bizarre sculptures of Prague

in #art5 years ago

Hi there my Steemian friends and followers!

As promised in my Sunday post, I am coming with another piece dedicated to photos that I took during my latest trip to the capital of my beautiful Czech homeland, the city of Prague.

This time around, we will take a closer look at a very distinctive and interesting feature of the city and that is bizarre sculptures. Apart from stunning architecture dating back to long centuries ago, Prague is also famous for numerous pieces of art, including a variety of unusual sculptures and statues ranging from funny to weird and downright creepy pieces.

Designed by various both domestic and foreign authors, these bizarre sculptures are scattered all over the city and I took photos of some of them while roaming the Prague streets.

Without further ado, let me now show you what I captured and also provide you with what I found out about these weird sculptures.


The King Kong Balls

IMG_20190927_113125.jpg

Let me start this little photo collection out with this giant blue monkey and his, well, highly visible massive golden testicles. Situated on the Milos Forman Square in the center of Prague, this remarkable statue was created by the French artists Denis Defrancesco. Named the King Kong Balls, this installation is a part of Sculpture Line 2019, a renowned annual international sculpture festival.


The Babies

7ohP4GDMGPrUMp8dW6yuJTR9MKNu8P8DCXDU9qmmjtm4iAuBXdiGmdFFNgRfvsyuqsEneLVJ1CJd1BfsQfLtGbrLSFjhRrv7igpY.jpg

When it comes to the creepy Prague sculptures, few pieces can compete with The Babies. Created by the famous Czech artist David Cerny, these enormous bronze statues of babies can be found at two locations - most of them are installed on the Zizkov Lookout Tower and 3 more are situated right next to the Kampa Museum in the historic center of the city. Just as if having these giant (3.5 m / 11.5 ft long and 2.6 m / 8.5 ft tall) babies crawling on the ground was not creepy enough, the author of this bizarre artwork decided to replace the babies´ faces with bar codes.


The Memorial to the Victims of Communism

IMG_20190928_142619.jpg

Found on the Ujezd Street at the base of the Petrin Hill, The Memorial to the Victims of Communism is one of the most famous art pieces of the Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek. The series consists of 6 bronze figures that are gradually decayed - the first one is complete but the other figures are losing limbs and their bodies are torn apart more and more. The memorial symbolizes the suffering of the political prisoners during the communist era.


The Head of Franz Kafka

7ohP4GDMGPrUMp8dW6yuJTR9MKNu8P8DCXDU9qmmoBwAFmh1yikFatq9xaoRVfV4XLVdgWSVDhVqWHANTh3UzhP4XVUMvHSbu5FT.jpg

Another masterpiece by the Czech artist David Cerny, The Head of Franz Kafka is a giant outdoor statue installed in front of the Quadrio Shopping Mall in the center of Prague. The kinetic statue is interactive - it changes its shape as it is made from 42 rotating metal panels. Created in 2014, the magnificent bust and its impressive movements has been attracting crowds of tourists ever since.


The Fairies

IMG_20190929_114806.jpg

Obviously, even fairies can be somewhat creepy when sculpted. Made by the Czech artist Josef Klimes, these three fairies can be found in the Fransiscan Garden in the very center of the city, just outside of the famous Wenceslas Square. Despite the central location, the garden is a very peaceful and quiet place where you can get away from all the hustle and bustle of the nearby busy streets. The garden was probably founded as early as in the 14th century, during the reign of Charles IV, one of the most prominent kings of Bohemia.


The Unknown Man

7ohP4GDMGPrUMp8dW6yuJTR9MKNu8P8DCXDU9qmmpTfKWs24Bnz1EDL3RNJ4dyq2jL9KKQU1r8KAMcycfTwBmoXsw4Ks1fTCLXyg.jpg

Although this weird fella is sitting on a bench right in the middle of the Wenceslas Square, one of the most famous and busiest places in Prague where thousands of people pass by every day, I was not really able to find out much about him. In spite of his mysteriosity, however, this guy is very popular with tourists who love to take photos with him.


Adam and Eve

IMG_20190929_115208.jpg

Another installation created for the Sculpture Line 2019, Adam and Eve is an interesting art piece by the ambitious Czech sculptor Krystof Hosek. Located on the Jungmann Square, the sculpture refers to the very origins of the mankind and the way we, humans, have been influenced by our intellect and knowledge. The Sculpture Line 2019 festival was open until the end of September but many art pieces will stay where they were installed even after that.


I hope you enjoyed this special photo collection of bizarre sculptures that can be found in Prague. In fact, this was just a little sample as there are dozens of other unusual art pieces to be admired in the Czech capital. All photos of sculptures featured in this post were taken by me.

How about you guys? Have you also taken any photos of bizarre sculptures lately? Feel free to share them with us in the comment section below, I would love to see them :)




uvodka.jpg


Thank you for visiting my blog. If you like posts about #nature, #animals, #ecology, #crypto, #traveling, #photography and discovering secrets and beauties of the #world, feel free to follow me as these are the topics I mostly write about. Have a wonderful day and keep on Steeming! :)

Sort:  

Hezká sbírka. Tu hlavu F. Kavky jsem nedávno viděl, ta je skvělá.
Mě asi nejvíc fascinují obří sochy V. Levého na Kokořínsku, Čertovy hlavy.
Certovy_hlavy_v_cele_krase.jpg

WOW! Skoro ako Mount Rushmore:D

Taky mi to trošku připomnělo :-)

Pamatuju si, jak jsi tuhle fotku dával do Prague/Czech Republic Challenge. Vypadá to opravdu monumentálně. Budu se tam muset někdy vydat :)

Jj, pravda. Můžu doporučit. Je tam v okolí vice soch. Tyhle jsou největší.

Congratulations! Your high-quality travel content was selected by @travelfeed curator @mrprofessor and earned you a reward, in form of an upvote and a resteem. Your work really stands out! Your article now has a chance to get featured under the appropriate daily topic on our TravelFeed blog.
Thank you for being part of the TravelFeed community!

Did you know that you get larger upvotes when posting through TravelFeed.io? That is not all, we are also giving away a ticket to Steemfest to one lucky TravelFeed user. Make sure to read the announcement and opt in! Also, thanks to the travel writing contest by @invisusmundi you can now earn up to 100 STEEM on top of the post rewards when posting through our new platform TravelFeed.io! Read the contest announcement for more information on how to participate.

We are continuously working on improving TravelFeed, recently we introduced EasySignUp and EasyLogin, our first step to make TravelFeed ready for mass adoption.


Learn more about TravelFeed by clicking on the banner above and join our community on Discord.

Wooow, how cool is that?! Thank you so much Arthur and the whole @travelfeed gang :) Made my day.

Hope we can always make your day, one way or the other :)

Stopped by literally just because of the first photo lolol What a golden ball!

Ahahah :D I knew this one would make for a great cover :D Glad to hear it did work :) Thanks for stopping by and for your support, much appreciated ;)

Czech Republic was one of the first countries I biked through besides Germany, still holds some of the best memories to this date! BUT HOW IN THE WORLD did I manage to miss all that awesome art? holy shit. That's really awesome lol.

Haha thanks man :) Well, the art is mostly found in Prague and other major cities and I guess you spent most of the time cycling around the countryside, didn´t you?

Actually spend a whole day in Prague and a few other cities

Posted using Partiko Android

I love the mirror head of Kafka .... and i didnt know that prague was so sexual and arty love it !

I like the Kafka´s head too, there is something fascinating about watching it rotate :) Oh yeah, Prague is very arty actually :) Thanks for stopping by!

Wow, there are some relly weird sculptures there!

Weird indeed :)

Pěkné, většinu jsem ani neznal.

This was simply amazing. Such wonderful statues, glad you added them all to one post !:)

Thanks man, it was my pleasure :) I am glad to see such a positive feedback :)

Those are some.... interesting... sculptures @phortun, interesting
Moving, inspiring. Post upvoted

Thank you for this nice comment and for your support, much appreciated :)

You're welcome my friend. The post was worthy, I loved the
Images, and knowing how much I appreciate any and all
Upvotes, I am happy to support others when I can.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.29
TRX 0.12
JST 0.033
BTC 63855.79
ETH 3113.00
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.04