Czech Artist David Černý Unveils His Latest Sculpture

BB Centrum in Prague 4 has been decorating with an unusual car since yesterday.

The work is a legendary Porsche 911 by the Czech artist and sculptor David Černý.

His eight-meter long installation is made up of eleven movable segments, and its opalescent color refers to the beetles living in nature.

Why a car?

“The location near Prague’s highway and my ambivalent relationship to the car on one side, and on the other my fond for the iconic Porsche 911 since I was a child,” explains Černý.

In the past 30 years, Černý has become the most prolific Czech sculptor. His work ranges from the monumental, like the giant stainless-steel kinetic sculpture of Kafka’s head in the centre of Prague, to the subtle, like the enigmatic and barely noticeable “Embryo” installed as part of the downspout outside the Theatre on the Balustrade, where Havel premiered his early plays in the 1960s.

Černý’s Quo Vadis (Trabant), installed in the garden of the German embassy, is a reminder of the mass exodus of East Germans to the west before the Wall was breached on 9 November 1989.

His rendition of St Wenceslas – mounted on a dead horse suspended upside-down from the ceiling of the Lucerna Palace – was inspired by a period of political depression in the late 1990s.

His works radiate self-deprecating humour that seems intrinsic to the Czech nature, though it seldom finds expression in its public art.

Photo: © PASSERINVEST GROUP, a.s.

Photo: © PASSERINVEST GROUP, a.s.

Photo: © PASSERINVEST GROUP, a.s.