Prague — David Cerny Tour

I stumbled upon an interactive website which served as a walking tour of the sculptures of one of Czechia’s most renowned contemporary artists, David Cerny. His work is provocative, weird, and controversial. He became known in 1991 for his use of art as civil disobedience and political commentary when he displayed a Soviet tank painted pink along with a huge metal hand flipping the bird. Since then, he has gone on to aggravate and offend large swathes of the European population. I started at his museum in Prague called the “Musoleum.” It was definitely offensive. I couldn’t post photos of most of the works he had on display. I had better luck following his public art — the sculptures in the streets of Prague. His most famous work, the Rotating Head of writer Frank Kavka, is at the center of a busy square just outside of a shopping center. Another one is of Wenceslas, Duke of Bohemia, riding an upside-down dead horse. This one is hanging from the ceiling of a shopping arcade. He has the Man Hanging Out which is of Sigmund Freud hanging on for dear life on top of one of the buildings in the city center. At the Kafka Museum, he has one called “Piss,” which was popular with kids. I think the one the people seemed to enjoy the most was his “Babies” in the park overlooking the Charles Bridge. People got all giggly as soon as they saw the huge naked babies. They’re faceless of course, because Cerny can’t just have people giggling when they see his work. No, these babies have slots with barcodes where their faces should be. It’s creepy.Read more