You’re walking through the wide pedestrian zone Lannova třída that leads from the train station into the heart of České Budějovice. It’s a lively space, full of cafés, shops, and people. Right in the middle of it, standing among the passersby, is a tall, silvery figure: the Steel Runner.
The statue is placed on a low pedestal made of light grey metal. The surface of the base is smooth and matte. It has no regular shape – its gently angled edges seem to follow the direction and motion of the figure above it. The base has no inscriptions, and its simplicity allows the sculpture itself to stand out.
The statue is about 3,5 meters tall, roughly the height of a one-story house, and weighs around two and a half tons. It is made entirely of stainless steel. Its surface is smooth, cold, and has a metallic sheen. In daylight, it may sparkle or reflect light brightly.
The figure has human proportions, but it doesn’t look realistic. It feels more like a figure in a smooth spacesuit, something between a human and a machine. The suit has no joints or segments; it is compact. The hands have no individual fingers – the arms form solid shapes. The whole surface is made of thin vertical strips of metal that fit tightly together. They create a pattern that looks a bit like the contour lines on a map – or a digital model brought to life.
The Runner is frozen in motion. One foot touches the ground, the other is lifted behind. The body leans forward, arms swinging naturally, as if they’ve just taken off in a sprint.
The head is round and smooth, blending seamlessly into the rest of the figure. A faint face sits deep within the surface, subtly shaped by the narrow vertical strips. It isn’t raised or sculpted in detail, but appears between the lines – sometimes clearly, sometimes disappearing, depending on where you stand. It creates a shifting, almost illusion-like effect, as if the face emerges and fades with your movement.
The Runner is a theme the author has returned to over many years. It has never been the focus of his work nor a subject of concentrated interest, yet he keeps coming back to the image of a running figure. He has never perceived the runner—male or female—as a competitor, but rather as a hunter, following their prey with slow yet persistent movement; as a messenger carrying news; or as a pilgrim swiftly crossing the landscape toward an unknown goal. The Steel Runner, created in 2021, is made from 10 mm thick stainless steel sheets. The original concept depicted a slim, running male figure. The author first sculpted it in clay at a small scale, then scanned it using a 3D scanner and continued working on the digital model using digital sculpting tools. As the process evolved, the figure grew in volume, gradually transforming from a light-footed runner into a bulky form enclosed in a kind of spacesuit. In traditional sculpture, such a transformation of volume is irreversible and extremely time-consuming. In contrast, 3D modeling allows infinite variations and experimentation. While exploring the figure’s expanded mass, the author arrived at the image of a suit or shell. In the context of the pandemic—when people were isolated from one another and from the world— he embraced the notion of a runner sealed in a protective suit. Thus, digital sculpting tools influenced not only the conceptual development of the piece but also left a physical imprint on its surface. The process of volume adjustment caused calculation errors in the digital mesh, resulting in surface irregularities—bulges—where the computer became „stuck“ in rendering the enlarged surface. These imperfections were deliberately preserved, though it would have been easy to smooth them out. Eventually, the runner was given a face, and his surface was sliced into contour lines. These layers were laser-cut from 1 cm thick stainless steel sheets and welded together from the inside—the sculpture is hollow—to form the final figure. The choice of material and the fabrication method are thoroughly contemporary, while also fulfilling a timeless requirement of sculpture since ancient times: the ability to withstand the passage of time across centuries or even millennia. The surface of the sculpture reflects surrounding light beautifully, changing with the environment. Visually, the Runner appears almost weightless, and in some outdoor settings, his solitary presence gives him the look of a Martian figure.