David Černý

Today it rained, the first bad weather we've had so I spent it at the Museum of Young Art. It was a ridiculous adventure. First of all it is home to TWO David Cérny works. If you don't know who David Cérny is, you are missing out (here's his site). This guy is #1 rebel artist extraordinaire in rope, and guess what? He is Czech. He does crazy provodcative sculptures and places them in extremely pbulcic spaces. He also has his own gallery here called the MeetFactory, which is an abandoned warehous (rumored to have once been a meat packing facility) where he has his own installations as well as promotes young artists in Prague. Also, he uses it as a space for theater, live music, comedy, movies, anything you want... complete with a bar. It's a fantastic place. I've been here for only 3 weeks and I've already been twice. Considering its far and I haven't started repeating places yet, it's that good. So today's post is all of the  Cérny works I have managed to find in Prague thus far. 

The guns below are at the Museum of Young Art in Prague, and as you can see all year round they just hang in this 19th century courtyard. They were originally installed in the World Trade Center in NYC in 1994.

 These two peeing men are near to the Kafka Museum. A picture could never capture this sculpture (but a better image can try). 1st, their penises move up and down. 2nd, they are pee-writing (there's no good word for this) famous Czech quotes. 3rd, if you text (yes SMS text) the # listed then it interrupts the quote to pee-write your text and then continues the quotes. 4th, the statues are peeing on an image of the Czech Republic. Wow, Cérny. Wow.

Three of these Babies are in the park, not far from the Peeing statues. Their faces have been smashed in completely... maybe someone actually punched some babies (Staples?!?!), maybe they have been stamped with barcodes, who knows. Either way there are many, many more of these babies crawling up the TV Tower in Prague.

 This Cérny work is dedicated to Franz Kafka, a fellow strange but awesome Czech. It is located in the Jewish Quarter. What is interesting about Kafka is that he was from Prague (and thus Czech) but spoke (and wrote in) German (because the Czech Rep. was under the rule of the Austrian Hungarian Empire pre-WW1). He never knew any Czech.

The work to the above is a satire of one of the most well known statues in all of Prague: St. Wenceslaus on his horse. Originally the statue is in the main square, which is named after St. Wenceslaus, and the horse is not dead, as you might imagine.

 This is Cérny's gallery... At the MeetFactory there are surprises everywhere.

A Cérny work that I haven't seen yet (it's in Brussels) is "Entropa". It is a piece mocking different EU countries and their stereotypes. It's worth taking a look at since it is his most recent internationally controversial work.

I have also seen a piece called "Shark Tank" that I did not photograph, because it was too grotesque to me. I didn't like to look at ti. But it is a pretty intriguing piece. 1 year before the dictator was executed, Cérny constructed a tank (filled with a sinister-looking green liquid/gel/something) containing a realistically sculpted Saddam Hussein... realistic down to the hair on his chest (even his nipples) and his toes. He is in underwear and wearing a noose and handcuffed. It is a truly bizarre thing to see. Somehow he looks simultaneously dead and dangerous. You can google it if you want, but I didn't take any pictures.

If you can't tell by now, I have a slight art-crush on David Cérny. Apparently there is a bar not too far from my flat there he is rumored to hang out at on weekdays, as hinted to me by my Czech Contemporary History Prof, Lucas. It would be pretty cool to meet him... :-D