July 19, 2008: žižkov TV Tower

[xoxoxoBruce]

This TV tower in Prague, is unusual in shape, but more unusual is the 10 huge crawling babies permanently attached to it.

the tower itself, sans faceless toddlers, was built in the mid-late 80s and stands 216 metres tall. even without the babies it’d be a strange looking beast, but that didn’t deter the geniuses in charge of the tower from permanently attaching david cerny’s sculptures to its legs - in 2000 they were added as a temporary installation but the public loved them so much that they were kept for good

Even more creepy are the babies themselves.



link

[touchnova]

I visited Prague a few years ago and as much as the history of this great city leaves one in awe, so does this tower...and those babies. Craziest thing I've ever seen with my own two eyes. Where does someone come up with such idea?

[Sundae]

I wonder what sort of noise those metal fingers make when they come to life and night and crawl down the tower looking for faces? I think I'll hear them tonight when it gets dark... Plink, plink, plink...

Another random fear to add to the list.
Face snatching snatch-faced babies.

[SPUCK]

What a bunch of butt heads. er faces.


I bet birds make nests in those faces.

[SteveDallas]

"see, kids, this is what happens if you watch too much TV . . . "

[spudcon]

I'll bet the slots are for Beta format video cassettes.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by spudcon

I'll bet the slots are for Beta format video cassettes.

Videodrome meets Teletubbies!

[newtimer]

I don't get it. Are the baby heads some kind of ventilation intake?

Reminds me of the gargoyles that medieval architects used to put on buildings as water spouts.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's typical of the "artist", David Cerny.

[Gravdigr]

The tower is weird looking. But those freaky little Pink Floyd-looking babies take the damn cake. Talk about a face only a mother could love...

[Imigo Jones]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

It's typical of the "artist", David Cerny.

Bruce, are you saying he's more provocateur or something than "true" artist (whatever that may be)? Thanks to your link, I've come to the opinion that such an opinion may not be unreasonable.

. .

Left: "Good King" Saint Wenceslas statue in Wenceslas Square, Prague; Josef Václav Myslbek (d. 1922), sculptor. See quote 1 below.
Center: "It is located in the entrance to the Lucerna theater on the southeast side of Wenceslas Square. Sculpture by David Cerný, executed in foam, but made to resemble patinated bronze."
Right: 2003 Cerny installation at Futura Gallery, Prague. See quotes 2 and 3 below.

Quote 1: "By far Myslbek’s most famous work is the statue of Saint Wenceslas which is located in the center of Wenceslas Square. It took him over 20 years to complete but has since become one of Prague’s most recognizable landmarks and a symbol of Czech statehood."

Quote 2; Spuck wrote:

What a bunch of butt heads.

Quote 3: [Interviewer] And I guess you could describe them as the lower halves of two figures and two tall ladders that you climb so that you can look into the figures' behinds! Inside, there's a video installation.

[Cerny] Uh, the video installation is kind of a metaphor of the Czech art-politic, ah, not even art - it's basically a metaphor for the political situation here, when politicians are sort of "feeding" each other in a special way.

[Sarasvati48]

Looks like something out of "Dr. Who"...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Imigo Jones

Bruce, are you saying he's more provocateur or something than "true" artist (whatever that may be)?

Not at all. I was answering newtimer's question, why the babies' heads look strange, pointing out it's because of the type of sculptor(artist) Cerny is.

[Imigo Jones]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Not at all. I was answering newtimer's question, why the babies' heads look strange, pointing out it's because of the type of sculptor(artist) Cerny is.

Oh, okay. I thought that the quotation marks signified sarcasm over applying the term artist to anyone who would create such hideous-headed babies, like saying, "the so-called artist, David Cerny." Which is one legit attitude to take toward Cerny, the purposes of whose entire body of work (I dug around a good bit after following your two links) seem to be to (a) get noticed and (b) provoke controversy. Sometimes Cerny has the agenda (hidden or overt) of commenting on the political or cultural situation (as revealed in quotation in earlier post). Sometimes he's just trying to attract attention.

The hideous-headed babies seem to be a "successful" work of art (so-called!) along the latter lines, since here we are discussing it. I guess to an artist who's an attention ho, "there's no such thing as bad publicity." Otherwise, I didn't see anything that suggested Cerny was making any kind of statement about something with the babies, or with the fact that their faces are like that.