Výstavy

16. 6. 201014:44

Day Twenty Seven - Exhibition of Jiří Sozanský

The exhibition on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the execution of Milada Horáková, Záviš Kalandra, Jan Buchal and Oldřich Pecl.

The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic – Straka Academy, Nábřeží Edvarda Beneše 4, Prague 1

Author of the Project: Jiří Sozanský
Curator of the Project: Jiří T. Kotalík in cooperation with the architect David Vávra
Organizer of the Project: Civic association SYMPOSION in the cooperation with the Municipality of the Capital City of Prague and the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Jan Fischer and the Lord Mayor of Prague Pavel Bém.

The sculptural group MATER MORTIS will be installed in front of the main entrance of the Straka Academy and will be open to the public. Collages of Jiří Sozanský will be presented in the framework of the open days, about the dates of which you will be informed in advance.


The execution of Milada Horáková and other three people condemned to death on 27 June 1950 and long-lasting imprisonment for the other accused persons started the communist terror of the 1950'. After 1989 certain information were published that documented the fact that lawsuits had been fake; however broad informing of the public on the essence and the ideological importance of the lawsuit was still missing. As early as in the last years efforts have been emerging to reflect this topic both in the documentary and artistic form.

In 2010 in the framework of 60th anniversary of lawsuits, the civic association SYMPOSION prepared a project Day Twenty Seven which commemorates this tragic and dark past of the Czech society. Part of the project forms the exhibition of Jiří Sozanský opened on 16 June 2010 in the premises of the Straka Academy.

In the background of the collection of photo-collages and drawings, Jiří Sozanský will present newly created works: sculptural-architectonic models directly reflecting lawsuits of 1950' and the solitary bronze sculpture MATER MORTIS situated in the exterior of the Straka Academy.

The group of sculptures MATER MORTIS, consisting of two woman figures, is also a reflection of both totalitarian systems – Nazi and Communist systems. Both of them condemned Milada Horáková to death but communists that monstrous act really performed.

This monumental work has its form intentionally derived from the typology of plague columns that used to be erected in squares of our towns as a memorial and acknowledgments for distraction and termination of pestilential epidemic, war suffering and such like. As an expressive hyperbole, this issue is again topical with the expressed question mark: Are we really ready to understand that time as the past which we disavow and the returns of which we never allow?

Jiří Sozanský belongs among those artists the work of whose directly resonates with the present days we are living in. He entered the artistic scene in the mid seventieth of the last century in the time of culminating normalization and artistic non-freedom.
Throughout all his artistic work he was engaged against all forms of violence, despotism and ideological dictate, trampling human rights and dignity of a man. He is known as an nonconformist artist and as a man of strong opinions and attitudes which are expressed in the form of great multimedia projects connected with particular spots.

Through his activities in unusual spaces and spots, Sozanský spirited dulled artistic scene of 1970'. His actions spoke to the normalizating society despite consirable personal risk. Sozansý is interested in a man facing critical situations, in his internal mood and external responses towards human community. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects, installations, environments and performances respond to the particular environment and social situation as an urgent and warning memento.

The latest project of Jiří Sozanský DAY TWENTY SEVEN, and the artistic works which have been created in its framework, is possible to interpret as a pulling out of lethargy and as a alarming memento of guilty and weaknesses – as a modern plague column symbolizing memory and warning.

It is a privilege of an artist to speak in allegories, symbols and to multiply effect of its message using all the artistic means, verses, music and spoken word in an impressive multimedia collage. His gestures are seemingly hefty and aggressive but his artistic testimony is uncompromised and adequate to the tragic time which he evokes – freakish and hopeless time.

Jiří T. Kotalík


Part of the project DAY TWENTY SEVEN form number of events, some of which have already be held or will be held, for example:

20 January 2010 installation of sculptures of Jií Sozanský and an evening performance in a courtroom of the High Court in Prague- Pankrác – part of the opera of Aleš Březina Tomorrow we will be ... with Soňa Červená and Jiří Ornest.

On 24 June 2010 at 10 a.m. a memorial which was created by Jiří Sozanský as a honour of those who had been imprisoned here in 1950' will be unveiled in former labour camp Vojna u Příbrami.

The exhibition of Jiří Sozanský DAY TWENTY SEVEN will be organised in November and December 2010 at the Police Museum, together with theatre performance of the Spitfire Company ensemble, seminars and workshops.