The work from the author’s cycle History Repeats Itself consists of the installation of four copies of ancient columns in the kindergarten of the Vlasta housing estate in Prague.
The surface of the acrylic columns is treated with a digital keying paint referring to the absence of a historical context within the current function of the building. Virtual blue demonstrates blank spaces on a map of our own, not too distant history. The columns use original beams and purposefully cover the original industrial look. For several months, the facade of the kindergarten gives with exaggeration the character of the Greek agora – a gathering place for free citizens, which were key urban elements of the Greek city-states, their management, trade and democracy.
The surface of the acrylic columns is treated with a digital keying paint referring to the absence of a historical context within the current function of the building. The virtual blue demonstrates blank spaces on a map of our own, not too distant history. The columns use original beams and purposefully cover the original industrial look. For several months, the façade of the kindergarten offers (with exaggeration) the character of the Greek agora, i.e. a gathering place for free citizens, which were key urban elements of the Greek city-states, their management, trade and democracy.
The work uses the specific architectural lack of style of the building and its association to the once generously conceived housing estate, only a few tens of minutes from the historical centre of Prague. Magnitogorská Kindergarten is metaphorically located in the shadow of the pyramid of rapid history. It is located in the vicinity of the historic Koh-i-noor factory, being adjacent to the Austro-Hungarian Chariot Barracks in Vršovice (occupied by the Nazi army during World War II), while it also became part of the forced removal of 3,500 inhabitants (mostly families of professional soldiers) from the municipality of Milovice as a result of the Soviet occupation after 1968.
The current housing estate is defined by the insulation gown of multi-coloured polystyrene above a crumbling utopian arcade, abandoned artistic sculptures, unmaintained greenery, but also the approaching interest of developers, while leaving or never settling (?) its public space.