Art in the city 2024 – Umění ve městě

About festival

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF MATTER as the topic of the 17th annual sculpture festival Art in the City is once again entering South Bohemian towns.

Sculpture as a medium has always struggled with the fundamental principles of forming and shaping matter. However, only when matter is enlivened by the consciousness and soul of the creator, it does rise beyond ordinary shaping and become art. As Francis of Assisi once said: Who works with his hands and head is a craftsman. Who works with his hands, head and heart is an artist.

At the heart of this festival is the idea that our collective consciousness serves as a vast source of inspiration. As we interact with the world, we process information, emotions and thoughts that then find expression in the works of the sculptors, of which there are 21 this year. „Consciousness of Matter“ encourages us to reach into this shared space and seek inspiration in the depths of human thought and contemporary global consciousness.Consciousness that is thickened by cultural differences, fears or power interests.

Tomáš Dolejš explores this theme in his sculpture Divided Society. The only sculptress exhibiting in České Budějovice this year, Jana Schlosserová, will exhibit her sculpture Displacement. She leaves behind a cast concrete stump fragment in the city.

Maybe this is what our nature will look like if we move away from the much talked about „green deal“. Budweiser’s consciousness will be processed and the imprints of the city’s inhabitants captured by French artist Fred Martin, who will stay here for a month to create two installations in Rabenštejnská. The other one will be a monumental face, capturing consciousness from the branches of trees.

The sculpture, which captures the intangible in matter, is a sound recorded in Budejovice by David Sila and Kristof Vitner. In addition to serious themes, there are also installations in the city that can entertain. This year, I will contribute to the festival with sculptures of animated matter of grotesque creatures called Balls, inspired by my son Tim’s drawings.

Enjoy summer in the city with sculptures that become a living canvas of the mind, a space where the immaterial and the material coexist as one with a more or less serious message.

Michal Trpák
Sculptor and initiator of the Art in the City festival