Prague: A David Cerny Scavenger Hunt

David Cerny is a Czech installation artists who became famous in 1991 for painting a Soviet tank monument in Prague pink, which got him arrested under a pre-Velvet Revolution "public disturbances" law. His arrest started a large national dialog on these frequently abused laws (and on the Czech identity) but he was eventually released and the laws were changed. Some of the members of Parliament even repainted the tank pink in protest of his arrest! Anyways he has been making a ruckus with his art ever since. I knew of three of his Prague works that I went out seeking one day, but in the process accidentally came around several more. His work isn't the most subtle, but I think it's quite funny and provoking.

First stop was "Horse", which is a statue of King Wenceslas riding a dead upside-down horse. This is a parody of famous statue of King Wenceslas, but is supposedly not a statement about the king or his horse, but instead about the leadership of modern Czech government. It hangs in a the atrium of Lucerna Palace in the middle of town, which is basically a beautiful old mall.

Next I came across "Metalmorphosis", which is a 36 feet tall mirrored bust of Franz Kafka. It is made up of 42 different moving metal layers whose movements slowly transforms the face. It is located behind the Quadrio shopping center.

My favorite work of his was just around the corner from Franz. And if you weren't paying attention you could totally miss it, and if you were you then you might think you were looking at a stunt or suicide. But it's just a sculpture of Sigmund Freud hanging by one hand from a pole over Old Town Prague. It was Cerny's response to a question about the role of the intellectual in the 21st century. It can be found at the intersection of Husova and Skorepka.

Cerny loves demented alien babies, and has several giant versions of them around Prague. The most famous ones are climbing the giant Zizkov television tower.

© Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

I unfortunately didn't make it out to the tower, but I did find some of these smash (barcode?) faced babies just outside of the excellent Kampa Museum.

Here's another view. Note the dude on the right baby's back - he stayed on it for as long as I was there and really seemed to be enjoying himself.

Not too far from these terrifying babies is the comical "Pissing". It consists of two naked Czech politicians urinating into a pool that is shaped like the Czech Republic. Not only that but you can text a message to the installation and the urinating figures will write out the message with their streams.This seems to be his most popular work in Prague and can be found right outside of the Franz Kafka Museum.

One of Cerny's early works is called "Quo Vadis" and was made as a tribute to 400 East Germans who, in 1989, occupied the West German embassy in Prague seeking asylum. They were eventually given asylum and were able to move to West Germany. The piece is of a Trabant (the most common car in East Germany) on four human legs. It is in the back yard of the German embassy and can be viewed through the fence of the neighboring park.

The last of his works that I saw was his newest Prague addition. It shows a 18-foot reflective and pixelated naked (pregnant?) woman. There is an opening between her legs that you can try and climb up in, like the guy in the picture below did (though you're actually not supposed to touch the statue). It is located in the Jewish district in Old Town at Dlouhá 12.

These are at least a couple more of his works that can be found in the Prague city limits that I missed on my walk including:
Embryo, at the The Theatre on the Balustrade, which seems to light up at night:

http://www.davidcerny.cz/EN/embryo.html

And then there's the very memorable "Brownnosers" at the FUTURA Gallery:

https://flic.kr/p/88o85P

...which when you climb the ladder and put your head in the ass you see the below video of two Czech politicians feeding each other mush to Queen's "We are the Champions."



Like I said, not the most subtle. But what a lot of fun and I sure am glad that Mr. Cerny is doing what he is doing and has no problem making a very clear statement calling bullshit when he sees bullshit.