Localisation: Háječek Park – behind the Planetarium, near the pier at the confluence of the Vltava and Malše rivers
“Robot Marvin” looks like a small visitor from another planet, who has stopped in České Budějovice for a moment and is calmly looking around the area. He is not dangerous. Rather strange, which means that he really does look as if he comes from alien worlds. He is about 1,5 metres tall. At his widest point, that is at the height of the head and the wide brim, he measures about 1 meter.
Marvin rests on six legs. The legs are long, thin and curved in arches. They grow out from beneath the body and descend towards the ground in broad, soft arcs. Each one ends in an expanded, flat foot, similar to a suction cup or a small saucer. Thanks to this, Marvin stands steadily, although his silhouette seems light and slightly uncertain, as if he were only just learning Earth’s gravity.
The legs are not anatomical. They resemble pipes, cables or the limbs of a mechanical creature. They are smooth, rounded and narrow where they meet the body. Their arrangement is symmetrical. The front legs stand closer together, the side legs spread out more widely, and the rear ones are hidden behind the body. Between them there is a lot of free space, through which one can look into the middle of the object.
Above the legs there is a small, angular body. It has the shape of a simplified, many-sided block. It is not large in relation to the whole figure. It looks like a technical connector between the legs and the head. From its lower part hangs a single rounded form, resembling a rounded weight or a soft pouch. This element is placed centrally, beneath the body, between the legs.
Marvin’s head is set above the body on a short, narrow neck. The neck has the shape of an inverted cone or drop: wider at the top, narrowing downwards. Resting on it is a wide, flat form which functions like an enormous hat brim, a plate or a saucer. This is the most recognisable element of the whole figure. The brim is thin, strongly stretched out to the sides and finished on both sides with sharper, elongated tips. From below, its oval, slightly concave surface is visible.
On the brim, exactly in the middle, there is the upper part of the head. It is a rounded, horizontal block with soft edges. It resembles a low capsule or a helmet. On its front side there are three small, round openings arranged in a horizontal row. Each of the openings is outlined by slightly raised rims. These openings can be read as eyes, visors or control lights. They do not create a face in the human sense, but they are enough to accept that Marvin is a being that is looking.
Marvin’s surface is dark, almost black. In the sun’s rays, in places it shifts into deep brown. In sunlight, warmer, metallic reflections appear on it. It is smooth… Marvin’s whole figure is simplified and geometrised. He has no mouth, nose, arms or realistic body parts. The “body” consists of a few simplified elements. These elements make Marvin legible to us as an unusual figure – part robot, part insect, part alien in a hat shaped like a flying saucer.
Oh! We forgot to add: everything is all right… Marvin is made of bronze. The author of this sculpture is Jaroslav Róna.