Jiří Příhoda (CZ) → Capriccio, UAPs, Karbola

19–24
  • Hradčany
  • Object installation

About project

The installation of three objects by Jiří Příhoda in the Sternberg Palace represents the different paths that the author has been developing in his monumental sculptural works for a long time. They are all constructed on the precise foundations of Cartesian geometry, the proportional canons of classical architecture and the physical laws of balance. They work with the movement of light and shadow, the contrast between a rigid skeleton and a delicate transparent mass. Although all the objects are solid and static, they give the impression of dynamic movement. They play out an illusory scenographic drama with the ambivalence of inner and outer space. A completely new object, Capriccio, was created for the vast hall of the stables. At the crossroads between architecture and sculpture, the installation draws on the Renaissance invention of perspective. In history painting, Capriccio represented a genre of landscape painting with artificially shaped elements of small buildings. Here, it becomes the axis of the hall, whose reflections and linear perspective it incorporates into its construction.

Located in an oval atrium, the UAPs object uses artificial intelligence tools to generate fictional worlds
that are projected onto its wall in the direction of the palace’s outdoor garden. There is an object called Karbola. Its shapes are made up of a spherical section that gives way to a luminous triangular entrance. In the middle of the garden, surrounded by bronze statues, it gives the impression of an alien spaceship.

Artist

Jiří Příhoda is one of the most important contemporary Czech artists. He lives and works partly in New Mexico. He works on monumental realizations on the border between architecture and object, exploring the laws of spatial perspective, geometric proportions and the dynamics of light, sound and moving image. Since 1994 he has also worked with video projection. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where he attended the studios of Stanislav Kolíbal and Aleš Veselý. In 1997 he was awarded the Jindřich Chalupecký Prize. From 2005 to 2015 he was the director of the Intermedia Studio at the Academy of Fine Arts.

He is currently interested in the creation of alternative dwellings designed for reflection and individual isolation. Architecturally clean – minimal spaces are presented in natural and purely urban environments. His work has been included in the large-scale solo exhibition VOID at Prague's Rudolfinum Gallery in 2022, collaborative project NAVE with musician Brian Eno as well at the same gallery in 2023 and his kinetic multimedia object Vista Mars is permanently installed in the grounds of Karlín Rustonka and presented as part of the Satellites project at the Signal Festival in 2023.

Location

The three monumental sculptural works by Jiří Příhoda show different corners of this top-class Baroque building thanks to their differently conceived installations in the Sternberg Palace. Its builder was the imperial count Václav Vojtěch of Šternberk, who, as a descendant of one of the oldest noble families, was one of the most powerful Czech aristocrats. Giovanni Battista Alliprandi is credited with the construction of the vast residence between 1699 and 1708. Since 1947, the Sternberg Palace has housed the masterpieces of the Prague National Gallery, whose predecessor, the Picture Gallery of the Society of Patriotic Friends of Art, was located here in the 19th century.

Supported by

  • Partner of the installation

    National Gallery in Prague

  • Supported by

    Christie Digital

  • Supported by

    Art Panství Bechyně