Memorial to Maria Bartošová in Brno, 2013, 110 x 80 cm, cast iron, light.
Bartošová memorial
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MARIA BARTOŠOVÁ IN THE BRNO UNDERGROUND.
I think of a memorial commemorating the disappearance of Maria Bartošová as an “intangible” monument, a kind of anti-monument made of light radiating from an imaginary sculptural form or antiphon, forming a drainage channel – near the place where she fell on February 15, 1976 and subsequently disappeared in the sewage pipes under Brno. I understand this underground more as an underworld, because the idea of the manner of death of a relatively young woman who wanders and subsequently dies in the dark, full of sewage, mud, rats and stench evokes in me a fatal horror.
As an information panel (i.e. a kind of memorial plaque), I used a sewer cover, which I designed to be a functional lattice formed directly by the font. This font ultimately serves as a light template, so the overall effect has a slightly transcendent character. I wanted the “type lattice” to be truly functional. This would give the object a dark urgency that would allow us to at least partially imagine the despair that Mrs. Bartošová must have experienced underground. The consistent factual competition between the light from the depths of the earth and the sewage that falls on it could perhaps be a strong reminder of this tragic event.
Respectful situation on the street
