Meet David Cerny – an internationally famous Czech sculpture artist, best known for his giant space-age crawling babies on the Zizkov TV tower a hundred meters or so above Prague.

Born on December 15, 1967 in Prague, the modern art creator gained notoriety in 1991 by painting a Soviet tank pink that served as a war memorial in central Prague. As the Monument to Soviet Tank Crews was still a national cultural monument at that time, his act of civil disobedience was considered “hooliganism” and he was briefly arrested. The controversial artwork was far from his last and the Cerny has made a name himself with his tongue-in-cheek style.

“Provocation is the amplified reason why the art exists. What’s supposed to be called ‘art’ and not design has to have something behind [it]. Has to have some message, whatever. Of course, it can have a static message. But it has to have a message, it’s not a ‘chair’,” said the man behind the famous art.

If you’re looking for things to do in Prague, you could easily spend a day spotting his works around town. There’s the Head of Franz Kafka — a kinetic statue dedicated to the Czech Republic’s best-known author. His peeing statues have also been included in our list of bizarre fountains from around the world, so be sure to check them out after! Now let’s enjoy this collection of weird sculptures and installation art by David Cerny!

“Brown-Nosers” Installation Art at FUTURA Gallery Prague

(Image credits: davidcerny.cz)

You can climb a ladder and stick your head in the sculpture’s rear to see a video of two Czech politicians feeding each other slop to a soundtrack of “We are the Champions”. Brown nosing, indeed.

year: 2003 | material : mixed media | height 5.2 m (17.06 ft) | address: Hole kova 49, Prague 5, Czech Republic

“Nation for Itself Forever” Peeing Statue

(Image credits: davidcerny.cz)

To keep this controversial art statue, it has been changed more or less due to fear of protests that the project is aimed at the National Theater itself.

year: 2002 | height: 10 meters high (32.81 ft) (somehow hard to believe, maybe the statue itself hangs in such height, correct me if I’m wrong)

Two Proposals to Outdoor Metro Tunnel

First proposal

Second proposal

(Image credits: davidcerny.cz)

Proposals were made for Station Butovicka, however, at this moment the development of the project is very uncertain.

(Update: The metro tube is already in existence between stations “Hurka” and “Luziny” in Prague. It remains a plain and boring tube and there’s no plan for the change of the design as far as common Prague citizens (including me) know. He was just having fun. – thanks Cirrat)

“Two Peeing Guys” Sculpture

(Image credits: Chaymation)

“The idea for this famous artwork is disarmingly simple. Two bronze sculptures pee into their oddly-shaped enclosure (Update: actually it’s the shape of the Czech Republic – thanks Cirrat).

While they are peeing, the two figures move realistically. An electric mechanism driven by a couple of microprocessors swivels the upper part of the body, while the penis goes up and down. The stream of water writes quotes from famous Prague residents.

Visitors can interrupt them by sending an SMS message from their mobile phone to a number, displayed next to the sculptures. The living statue then “writes” the text of the message, before carrying on as before.” Chaymation

year: 2004 | height: 210cm (6.89ft) | address: Prague, Czech Republic

“Embryo” Installation Art

(Image credits: pavel-helge.dk, his website: pavel-helge.dk)

year: 1996 | materials : metal, foam, LED | height: 120 cm (3.94ft) | address: Czech Republic, Prague 1, Namesti U Sv. Anny, close to the Charles bridge in Stare Mesto

“Car with Legs” Sculpture Art

(image credits: leonbarnard)

“Head Of Franz Kafka” Kinetic Sculpture

(Update: This image is taken from an earlier work of David Cerny’s titled “Metalmorphosis”. More details below.)

material : stainless steel, motors, computer driven control center, water etc | height: 9.14m (30ft) | weight: 14 tons (28.000 lbs) | address: 3700 Arco Corporate Drive, Charlotte, North Carolina |live cam: metalmorphosis.tv

Svaty Vaclav (Sculpture)

(Image credits: jp1958 )

Lucerna Palace’s central atrium is dominated by Czech sculptor David Cerny’s dead horse ridden by St. Wenceslas. It is supposed to be an ironic twist on the St. Wenceslas statute in the square outside.

address: Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czech Republic

“Hanging Out” Sigmund Freud Statue

(Image credits: Curious Expeditions)

(Image credits ahisgett)

This sculpture, featuring the grandfather of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, is more often referred to as the “Hanging Man”. It was first exhibited at the exhibition Respekt 97 at the Villa Richter in the Prague’s Lesser Town and later installed at the Czech Cultural Center in Berlin; Moderna Muset in Stockholm; National Theatre in London; and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London.

year: 1996 | dimensions: 233 x 60 x 45 cm (7.64 x 1.96 x 1.48 ft)

Zizkov TV Tower with Crawling Babies

(Image credits: laura padgett)

(Image credits: CREAMASTER)

Zizkov television tower is 216 meters (709 feet) high, and it’s the highest tower in the Czech Republic. In the year 2000 Prague was one of the cities of culture and at the time Cerny was living here. He was asked by one guy from city hall if he would be interested in doing an installation for Zizkov. They said, yeah, it’s totally crazy, but we can try it. After one year of going from one clerk to another, with tons of papers, David Cerny got permission to do it. The positive reaction was so strong that the city hall tried to make them a permanent installation.

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