Prague, June 2 (CTK) – Czech sculptor David Cerny unveiled his latest artifact, hundreds of legs of the Czechoslovak four-time Olympic winner, long-distance runner Emil Zatopek (1922-2000), that will be installed on walls and houses of Rio de Janeiro during the forthcoming Olympics, on Thursday.
At the London Olympic Games four years ago, Cerny’s double-decker bus doing push-ups outside the Czech centre was greatly admired.
The public can see the legs in the Quadrio department store in Prague’s centre where a pair of the legs are hanging from the ceiling.
Architect Petr Kolar, who contributed to the installation, said the legs were a sort of bridge between the Olympic house in Rio, the fan zone in Quadrio and an Olympic park that will be established in Lipno, south Bohemia.
“It was conceived directly for Rio as a sort of guerrilla action, a reaction to the big tradition of the graffiti in Brazil,” Cerny said.
Czech Olympic Committee chairman Jiri Kejval said permit was needed for the installation of the legs, but organisers from some places had refused to give it.
Nevertheless, the artifacts are being packed and loaded into transport containers.
Cerny’s huge statue Entropa, which was placed in the EU Council’s seat in Brussels, stirred up a scandal during the Czech EU presidency in the first half of 2009. The installation consisted of stylised maps of all EU countries, pointing to various cliches and stereotypes they are linked with.
Some of the countries concerned felt offended and protested against the artifact.
