Saturday Art Workshop: Context Shifts / for the exhibition Heroes, Geniuses, Symbols and Muses

During these art workshops we will be inspired by the form and content of the selected models and studies for monuments by important artists (Bohuslav Schnirch, Josef Václav Myslbek, Ladislav Šaloun, Bohumil Kafka, Josef Mařatka, Jaroslav Horejc, etc. ) – focusing especially on their themes such as personifications of abstract notions (Intelligence, Music, Devotion, Spring), emotions (Sadness, Sorrow) and elements (the Vltava river), as well as their depictions of personalities from Czech history (Jiří of Poděbrady, St. Wenceslas, František Ladislav Rieger) and culture (Svatopluk Čech, Božena Němcová), characters from mythology (Libuše and Přemysl, Ctirad and Šárka), the theme of a woman (Resting Girl, Woman with Amphora), etc. Visitors will be able to see reproductions of photographs not only of the presented studies but also of the final completed monuments in their current location in public space. Participants will be able to not only compare these themes but also to design their own versions and variations on them — even directly for the sites where they are currently placed — by drawing into the reproductions and by keying (photomontages) their 3D creations (made of ceramic clay or modelling clay) into projections of these photographs. These small models will then be photographed in the garden of the Troja Château using optical effects to achieve a final result giving the impression of a monumental sculpture, viewed from various angles, located directly in the garden. An interesting experiment will also be the substitution of statues — testing and exploring how the existing monuments would function and look different if they were placed in a different environment or implemented on a different scale. Playing around with the names of the presented sculptures will also be inspiring — assigning the right ones, creating new ones, based on their drawing and spatial interpretations. We will also implement so-called “living sculptures” – visitors will stylize themselves into the compositions of the exhibited sculptural works and create different variations, versions and interpretations thereof. It will also be possible to complement reproductions of photographs of individual sculptures with drawings, to place these reproductions in new contexts, to shift them to the present time, in search of parallels to current situations of political and social life and to add various attributes characteristic of the present to the reproductions. Using collages and photomontages of these reproductions, we will interconnect figures and combine themes, thereby linking themes that seemingly cannot be connected.