Land Art – Pendulum (2021)
The Pendulum is located near the restored Church of St Nicholas in Šitboř near Poběžovice, in the Domažlice region. This connection of the Pendulum, as well as its physical form, to this place is not incidental. The life oscillation and its sway between its poles, or life and death, is linked to the history that led to the demise and restoration of the church, but also to the personality and work of John of Šitboř, “Ploughman and Death”, where he dealt with such dialogue between death and life. It is about the sway of life, transformation, destruction and renewal, and constant oscillation, which we observe ever more strongly. In the form of a Pendulum, simplicity is applied, leading to liberation from superfluous thoughts and concentration on peace in spiritual meditation.
Author: Daniel Doležal, Sculpture and Space studio
Land Art – Tree Trunks (2020)
Implementation of a large artistic composition of hollowed-out crawl tunnel tree trunks located in a public, freely accessible area near the Švihov Water Castle near Klatovy. The resulting work of art created a motif in this locality, which encourages the discovery and perception of nature and material through an object that can be touched and naturally included in games or relaxation near a historical monument. Due to the size of the implemented work, teachers and students of the Sculpture and Space studio participated in its creation according to the design of late Professor Jiří Beránek and Associate Professor Benedikt Tolar.
Land Art – Carousel (2019)
The Carousel land art work near Boněnov is a paraphrase of the original torture wheel used in the Middle Ages. On the subject of atavism, the author chose the simplest expression – witchcraft. Various social groups in history have attempted to remove natural sciences from human life. Whether for scientific or religious reasons, natural healing was viewed in a bad light and its followers were, in isolated cases, executed. Witches represented the group that was executed most frequently. In modern times, increasingly more people are turning to alternative and natural ways of life (including healing and herbalism). The artwork aims to express this turning point and abandonment of the old practices by simplifying the previously mentioned execution wheel. Within the work, it became an object expressing the overcoming of old hatreds on the site of the former gallows hill. The Carousel no longer serves as a punishment object, but as a reminder of how far we as humankind have come to recognise nature properties.
Author – Hugo Wirth, Sculpture and Space studio
Entwining – from Country to Country (2018 - 2020)
The idea of the “Entwining – from Country to Country” project was to create a network and develop cultural dialogue between organisations and artists of border areas of the Czech Republic and Bavaria through the creative work of Czech and German landscape sculptors – in land art. All the involved partners have already experienced this specific form of landscape artistic cultivation. At the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, the Sculpture and Space studio of late Professor Jiří Beránek and Associate Professor Benedikt Tolar has been dedicated to it for a long time. The main partner is the Klatovy/Klenová Gallery, which since the beginning of its founding has focused on the presentation of works by contemporary artists, and landscape creative work is a part of it. The project partners also comprised the German City of Schönsee, via the Centrum Bavaria Bohemia and Vilseck, which cultivate their public space with art and landart.
Thanks to this connection, a number of authentic works on both sides of the Czech-German border could be created. In the Klatovy/Klenová Gallery, an extensive game park around the Klenová Castle and Chateau was used to create land art pieces by students of the Sculpture and Space Studio. Symposia of Czech and German female artists took place in Vilseck and Klenová. During the symposia, new pieces were added to the art trail in Vilseck and the sculpture park in Klenová. The City of Schönsee provided students of Sutnar Faculty´s Sculpture studio with a place for an art internship in Bügellohe, a defunct German village where, under the leadership of Benedikt Tolar, they created a symbolic work reflecting its strong history.
Programme: Cross-border Cooperation Programme Czech Republic – Free State of Bavaria ETC Objective 2014-2020.
Main project implementer: Klatovy/Klenová Gallery
Project partners: Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art – University of West Bohemia, Pilsen (CZ), City of Schönsee – Centrum Bavaria Bohemia (DE), City of Vilseck (DE)
Project implementation period: 8/2018–9/2020
Project website: http://socha-prostor.com/projekty/prorustani-od-zeme-k-zemi/
Land Art – Automobile (2018)
The object consists of a wooden stake, taut strings and a sound box. Hitting the string causes periodic vortices that vibrate the string, which then creates sound. The pitch, i.e., the vibration speed (frequency), is caused by the wind speed. The length and thickness of the string determines the key in which the string plays. The sound of the string vibrates the string in the same key. “Automobile” is the implementation of fifteen such objects in the landscape, specifically in a meadow near the Chalupy village near Zemětice in the Pilsen Region.
Author – Richard Fahrner, Sculpture and Space studio
Land Art – What I See Is No Longer Here (2018)
The landscape is a neural network, in which the individual points arise and sink. Relations between them sometimes disappear, but at other times they just sleep for a long time, and it is not known whether something or someone will sometimes wake them up. The sculpture design envisages its location in the dilapidated Baroque Vranov farm near Rabštejn. The sculpture with the land art principles consists of a central stone that fell from the sky into an old barn and, with its higher message, turned the roof upside down.
Author – Jakub Šik, Sculpture and Space studio
Munich Agreement – Pilsen Remembers (2018)
The Munich Agreement – Pilsen Remembers project belonged to a series of faculty activities reminiscent of historical memories and major events. To remember the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Munich Agreement, the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, in cooperation with the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra and Institute for Study of Totalitarian Regimes, organised a composed evening. The strongly patriotic programme was enhanced by its visual side, which was prepared by students of the Animated and Interactive Art studio and the Multimedia studio.
Ladislav Sutnar – 120 Years (2017)
During its existence, The Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art prepared several projects that introduced the work of Ladislav Sutnar, as well as his life and inspiring personality, to the people of Pilsen. The Ladislav Sutnar – 120 Years project celebrating the anniversary of his birth then showed this creator in his many other artistic and professional roles throughout 2017. In selected urban locations, the public got acquainted with the work of the famous Pilsen native and one of the most important personalities of Czech culture in the interwar period.
ArtCamp (2016-2018)
The International Summer School ArtCamp has been hosted by the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art since 2005. Throughout July, not only the faculty building and university campus, but also the public areas of the city become the venue for a wide range of art courses for the public. The Summer School brings to Pilsen Czech and foreign big names in art who, as part of traditional artistic courses and work with new media, help discover the talent of all who are interested. Residents and visitors to the city can traditionally see the created works and experience the accompanying programme in the Ladislav Sutnar Gallery in Riegrova Street, or in parks and other places involved in the programme.
Land Art – Defunct and Endangered Churches (2012-2015)
The Land Art project was created within the Sculpture and Space studio of late Professor Jiří Beránek during the 2011/2012 school year. Its aim was to draw attention to the importance of churches as spiritual centres in the past, but also today. The purpose of the project is not, nor can be, the complete renovation of these buildings. The very number of these deliberately destroyed buildings is already dreadful, and their reconstruction is unrealistic. “However, their significance still lies in something else. Despite their sad fate, they preserve memory. The memory of the place as a spiritual centre, as a gathering point for people who are able to think about what goes beyond their capabilities,” said Prof. Jiří Beránek.
The project authors not only want to draw the attention of students, but also of the general public, to the problem of abandoned and destroyed mainly ecclesiastical buildings of the Czech border regions while, at the same time, offering students an interesting and current and really live theme. Prof. Beránek, in cooperation with architect Jan Soukup, selected several churches where students elaborated designs for land art compositions as part of their final and bachelor's theses. As part of the close cooperation of the Europen Capital of Culture Pilsen 2015, the Pilsen region, and the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, an idea was created to implement the best of these projects and to start building the Rediscovering the Cultural Landscape project. This created an excellent opportunity for students to try to implement their own work and gain valuable experience.
