A set of apartment buildings designed by architect Juraj Sonlajtner in the newly created complex of the Vysočanský Mlýn is organically accompanied by an open-air art gallery created by leading Czech sculptors and painters. In keeping with the name of František Odkolek, the founder of a chain of local bakeries, the collection of twelve artworks has been named Odkolekce. The determining criteria for curator Petr Wolf‘s selection of artists were the quality of their work, originality, experience exhibiting in public spaces, and a diversity of expressions representing several generations.
Eight artefacts were installed at the Secret Place in the first phase of construction, by David Böhm (1982) and Jiří Franta (1978), Michal Cimala (1975), Lukáš Rais (1975), Petr Stanický (1975), Čestmír Suška (1952), Evžen Šimera (1980), Michal Škapa (1978) and Karel Štědrý (1985). These achievements were followed in the following stages by Václav Cigler (1929) and Michal Motyčka (1974), Václav Fiala (1955), Tomáš Hlavina (1966) and Stanislav Kolíbal (1925).
The principles that the artists applied in the creation of:
1. Metamorphosis of things that were part of the original site
2. revitalization in its most original form
3. Recycling as a principle in the birth of a new identity of the place
4. Art as a guardian of memory
5. Art inextricably linked to the site
6. Art that is not just “for decoration” but wants to touch the deeper essence of a place
Annotation of artefacts installed in the area of the Vysočany Mill during 2023
David Böhm and Jiří Franta: The subject of our conversations
The artists, working as a duo, have created a spatial drawing. They have developed the classical two-dimensional discipline into a three-dimensional sculpture titled The Subject of our Conversations.
Michal Cimala: Roxorman
For his work, Michal Cimala used concrete reinforcements (so-called roxors) that were salvaged during the demolition of old buildings. He joined them together to form a figurative sculpture that weighs 6.5 tons and reaches a height of 7.5 meters.
Lukáš Rais: Trichodon
The steel object combines abstraction and realism. The sculpture, which is reminiscent of a pretzel, will be permanently relocated to the place.
Petr Stanický: Echo
The artwork Echo conducts a dialogue with the surrounding buildings. It can be a concrete torso, it can be a beginning. It can be a gazebo, but it can also be a generator of creativity.
Evžen Šimera: Descent
The west wall of the A2 house has been transformed into a huge “painting canvas”that reaches nearly twenty meters in height and twelve meters in width. The work is titled Descent.
Čestmír Suška: Bud
The sculptor has metamorphosed a cyclone separator, which was used to treat flour, into the form of a developing industrial flower. The work is titled Bud.
Michal Škapa: A Head Full of Ideas
The large-format graffiti A Head Full of Ideas (581 m2) in the passageway of an apartment building in the western part of the complex is an invitation to a strange world full of various elements and motifs expressing the inner state of the mind of man in the postmodern digital age.
Karel Štědrý: Runway
Painter Karel Štědrý’s path stretches with the first stage reaching a length of 63.5 meters. When completed, it will measure 135 meters, thus becoming the development’s communication axis.
