Sculptures of David Černý in Prague – Where to Find Them?
Some of David Černý’s works don’t need to be searched for.
They simply get in your way.
Others require you to look up.
Still others lie off the beaten track that the average tourist takes between Charles Bridge (Karlův most) and Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí).
And that is precisely why it is worth treating them as a separate map of Prague.
Not a map of monuments.
A map of oddities.
Lilith Prague – The Giant Woman in Karlín
In modern Karlín, it is hard not to notice her.
Lilith is not a small sculpture placed in front of a building.
She is part of the entire architectural composition.
The enormous female figure embraces the facade, creating the impression that one is looking at a frame from a science fiction movie.
It is one of the best examples of contemporary Prague, which does not try to copy its historic centre.
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 that to one of the most distinctive structures on Žižkov.
The huge children climbing the structure of the television tower are both amusing 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 equally hard to imagine the children without this structure.
Art has stuck to architecture.
And 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, be sure to look up.
A horse hangs above the pedestrians.
Dead.
Upside down.
Saint Wenceslaus sits on its belly.
This is Kůň, one of Černý’s most recognizable works.
You don’t need to study Czech history to see the joke.
Just walk through Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí) beforehand and see the classic monument to the patron saint of Bohemia.
Only then does the joke take on its full flavour.
Prague shows the hero twice.
First officially.
Then in 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 the figure of Freud high above the street.
From below, for a few seconds, you can be convinced that you are seeing a real person.
This is one of those works that work 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.
Peeing at the Franz Kafka Museum
This is one of those sculptures whose description sounds like a made-up story about Czechs.
Two metal figures are urinating into a tank shaped like the Czech Republic.
And it is all located in Malá Strana, in the vicinity of places belonging to the most historic and representative part of Prague.
Černý loves such 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, we find another characteristic object by Černý.
Trifot resembles a strange 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 all long since become accustomed to the fact that the city is 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 from 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 an ordinary car.
It gets limbs.
As if it could finally escape on its own strength.
This is one of those moments when absurdity meets a very concrete history.
And suddenly, it stops being merely funny.
Kafka’s Head – The 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.
Parts slide past each other.
A human disintegrates into a mechanism.
And then the mechanism pretends to be human again.
Kafka would probably have understood this.
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 (Nové Město).
Peek into Lucerna.
Ride to Žižkov.
Reach Karlín.
That is exactly why David Černý’s sculptures are a good pretext for seeing Prague alternatively.
Not as a catalogue of “TOP 10 attractions”.
But as a city composed of different eras, districts, and people.
If you are interested in just such a Prague, also see 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.