David Černý's Sculptures in Prague – Where to Find Them?
Some of David Černý’s works don’t require searching for.
They simply get in your way.
Others demand you look up.
Still others lie off the beaten path, far from the route the average tourist takes between Charles Bridge and Old Town Square.
And that is precisely why they deserve to be treated as a separate map of Prague.
Not a map of monuments.
A map of oddities.
Lilith in Prague – The Giant Woman in Karlín
In modern Karlín, it is hard to miss her.
Lilith is not a small statue placed in front of a building.
She is part of an entire architectural composition.
The enormous female figure embraces the facade, creating the impression that you are looking at a frame from a science fiction film.
It is one of the best examples of contemporary Prague, which does not try to copy its historic center.
Karlín has its own language.
Glass.
Modern offices.
Restored factories.
New architecture.
And amidst it, Černý places a gigantic human body.
Does Lilith protect the building?
Hold it up?
Try to climb it?
That is left to the viewer.
And it should be that way.
Miminka and the Žižkov Television Tower
There are sculptures that transform a building.
David Černý’s Miminka did exactly that to one of the most distinctive structures on Žižkov.
The enormous children climbing the framework of the television tower are both playful and unsettling.
Especially their faces.
Or rather, the lack thereof.
Žižkov Television Tower – Worth Seeing for More Than Just the Panorama
If you want to venture beyond the Old Town during your stay in Prague, Žižkov is one of the most interesting destinations.
The tower itself has become a symbol of this part of the city.
Miminka added another layer to it.
Today, it is hard to see the structure without Černý’s children, and just as hard to imagine the children without the structure.
The art has fused with the architecture.
And it has won.
Saint Wenceslaus in Lucerna Passage
Lucerna Palace and Lucerna Passage in Prague are places worth visiting even if the name Černý means nothing to you.
But when you enter the passage, make sure to look up.
Hanging above the pedestrians is a horse.
Dead.
Upside down.
On its belly sits Saint Wenceslaus.
This is Kůň, one of Černý’s most recognizable works.
You don’t need to study Czech history to see the joke.
You just need to have previously walked through Wenceslas Square and seen the classic monument to the patron saint of the Czechs.
Only then does the joke take on its full flavor.
Prague shows the hero twice.
First, officially.
Then, the Czech way.
Hanging Freud – A Sculpture Overhead
If you search Google for “Hanging Freud Prague”, the most important advice is:
look up.
David Černý placed Freud’s figure high above the street.
From below, for a few seconds, you might be convinced you are seeing a real human being.
This is one of those works that works best by chance.
Without warning.
Without a plaque.
Without museum silence.
Suddenly, an ordinary walk turns into a scene that the brain cannot immediately organize.
The Urinator near the Franz Kafka Museum
This is one of those sculptures whose description sounds like a made-up story about the Czechs.
Two metal figures are urinating into a tank shaped like the Czech Republic.
And it is all located in Lesser Town, next to some of the most historic and representative parts of Prague.
Černý loves these collisions.
Sublimity versus the body.
National symbolism versus physiology.
Tourist elegance versus absurdity.
And that is why this fountain is located exactly where it should be.
Trifot – The Eyes of the City
At the Czech Photo Centre, you will find another characteristic Černý object.
Trifot resembles a bizarre hybrid of a camera, a tripod, and an observing creature.
The theme is obvious:
looking.
Photographing.
Observation.
Technology.
But a more interesting question arises only after a moment.
Who is actually observing whom here?
Us the sculpture?
The sculpture us?
Or perhaps we have long since become accustomed to the city watching?
Quo Vadis – A Trabant on Legs
A car should have wheels.
Černý gives it legs.
Quo Vadis refers to the history of people fleeing East Germany and the events of 1989 associated with Prague.
The Trabant was one of the symbols of everyday life in East Germany.
In Černý’s hands, it ceases to be just a car.
It gets limbs.
As if it could finally escape on its own.
This is one of those moments when absurdity meets a very specific history.
And suddenly, it stops being purely funny.
The Kafka Head – A Moving Sculpture at Quadrio
If you are interested in Franz Kafka’s Head in Prague, we have prepared a broader description of it in our guide to David Černý’s work.
Here, it is worth remembering one thing:
don’t come, take a photo, and run.
Wait.
This is a sculpture whose meaning reveals itself through movement.
The face appears and disappears.
The parts slide past each other.
The human being dissolves into a mechanism.
And then the mechanism pretends to be human again.
Kafka would probably have understood it.
Černý’s Sculptures as a Map of Unconventional Prague
The most interesting thing is that these objects are not located next to each other.
You have to move around.
Leave the Square.
Walk through New Town.
Peek into Lucerna.
Ride up to Žižkov.
Reach Karlín.
That is why David Černý’s sculptures are a good pretext for seeing Prague alternatively.
Not as a catalog of “TOP 10 attractions.”
But as a city made up of different eras, districts, and people.
If this is the Prague that interests you, also check out Brutalism – Letná and the rest of the tours in Prague with a Polish guide.
Because after the first encounter with Černý, a person begins to notice one thing:
Prague has many more strange stories than postcards suggest.