Six artists, six works, one 6 × 3 m wall. Each work is created in two layers: the Wall Ink robotic printing system applies a pre-drawn part directly onto a wall in the pavilion, after which the artist completes it by hand in front of an audience. At the end of the day, the work is painted over, as if washed away by the tide. The next day, a new work is created on the wall. With selected works, part of the composition will be transferred to a separate canvas, which will be kept at the Moravian Library.
‘I sit down with a sheet of paper and start sketching. What might work on a wall six by three metres? I start drawing sea monsters. I don’t know why. Prehistoric ones. Of course – Zdeněk Burian. He’s never far from my thoughts. Those monsters were here too, in what is now our homeland. They used to chase other creatures, perhaps right where Prague is today.
‘Only later, over their skeletons, did the familiar coastline emerge. But I’ll still put the mammoth and Venus there. After all, they were ours too! After this, from the depths of prehistory, the cliffs of our history slowly rise. Knights and severed heads. Over and over again. I apologize for the simplification. But the square metres are disappearing fast. Nationhood at its apex. And a lighthouse, too, so that we are seen and people can find their way to us. So thank you, Václav. And thank you to many others.
‘I’ll probably draw a few aeroplanes. I always have to do that. Right – all done.’
