Untitled, 2025

Libor Novotný

street art

A guerrilla intervention on a statue of a miner from the 1930s.


A statue in a public space is also a manifestation of power and political ideas. In the past, the halo (nimbus) with twelve stars was taken from a Catholic statue of the Virgin Mary and became the logo of the European Union. It was supposed to inspire trust, familiarity and dignity as well as continuity. Catholic symbolism had a direct influence on the “visual presentation” of the EU. It is an invisible play with symbols that we know and that evoke a certain emotion in our perception.


Now I want to return the halo to a “profane” statue from the 1930s, whose theme is work and faith in progress.

The halo is neon, guerrilla-placed and parasitically powered by a street lamp.

The color of the halo is blue, referring to the EU flag, mixing current politics and the situation of the 1930s.

The game with the symbol continues, now perhaps in the opposite direction.

The social theme of the statue is sacralized and its heroism with which the theme of the miner was treated is revealed.

The statue, which has stood in the city for 90 years, temporarily receives a new identity.

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Ostrava, Czech Republic

Gallery

the statue in question
the statue in question
the statue in question
the statue in question

About the Artist

Libor Novotný is a creator of objects and spatial installations, often conceived for public space in the form of interventions. In terms of content, in the past they were often based on work with text and semantic messages, and gradually they began to show an interest in physical processes and natural phenomena. However, this "naturalness" was always associated with cultural symbols and was in a certain way contaminated by civilizational or technical impulses. Currently, this natural visuality is slightly lost and the works have mimicry of traditional sculptural work, even though it grows out of the same type of thinking.


The cultural references mentioned here take the form of recycling and using already existing forms from the history of art (crucifixes, sculptural portraits of antiquity and the Baroque, etc.). An important part of Novotný's approach is drawing, which is very often at the beginning of the work process as a way of immediate reflection on things and phenomena. A certain part is subsequently finalized in the material, but some consciously remain only on paper and form a kind of parallel interpretation of specific stories and situations.

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liborator@email.cz

Libor Novotny
Libor Novotny
Libor Novotny
Libor Novotny

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