In 2021, while studying at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art in Pilsen, I spent a semester on visual art in public space. Under the guidance of prof. Mikoláš Axmann a small author’s book came about, in which I thought about space in a playful and absurd way. It made me start thinking of public space as a place that art can give a new function, meaning and story.
The most important idea of the whole semester for me, though, was to involve children in creating art and give them the chance to take part in shaping the town they are growing up in. I took this idea to Markéta Krásová, who was just starting to teach at the Elementary Art School in Česká Třebová and who shared my enthusiasm for the project.
I began looking for a place in Česká Třebová where the idea could be realised. I chose the wall of the former open-air cinema on Boženy Němcové street. The place had stood abandoned for a long time, slowly falling into disrepair, and it seemed a shame to me that it was being left without life.
The children at the art school began making work on various themes, and one of the tasks was also to design paintings for a specific public place. Together we looked for how their drawings might work in a real space. This collaboration lasted about two years. Then we put on an exhibition, showing not only the children’s own work but also visualisations of how it might look on the chosen wall. The exhibition included a survey, which around eighty visitors took part in. Their positive reactions confirmed to us that a project like this makes sense, and that people in our town are interested in art in public space.
On the strength of the exhibition the project came to the attention of the town’s cultural committee and subsequently of the deputy mayor, who approved its realisation. Because the originally chosen wall of the former open-air cinema turned out not to be suitable for painting after all, the town architect proposed a new site: the gable wall of the art school building, which was just then being renovated.
Around 40 children aged 6–12 took part in the project, and between them they produced a great many wonderful, creative designs. In the end we chose fantastical animals as the winning theme, because that was where the children were most creative and least tied down by a specific brief. The final design came about by joining the drawings of four children: Marek Axler (10), Tereza Betlachová (8), Victoria Tershak (13) and Anežka Vávrová (10). Out of their pictures I made one composition, linking the individual creatures into a landscape while respecting the shape of the gable wall. For the realisation we chose a black-and-white motif, as it fitted best into the surrounding environment and architecture.
Painting it took three weeks, from 10 October to 1 November. Using a grid we transferred the design onto the façade, and then, together with several helpers, we painted the whole motif with brushes. The priority, and at the same time the challenge, was to keep the freshness of the children’s hand in the painting. The work also involved communication with the town, running the project and taking responsibility for the whole team.
And what is the point of it? I see it above all in the fact that the children were given the chance to take part in shaping the environment they are growing up in. I believe that this lets them build a stronger relationship with the places around them and with the town they live in. I also wanted to show them that their work does not always have to end up in a drawer or on a bulletin board at school. It can become part of the public space that hundreds of people pass through every day. At the same time I hoped the project would help awaken greater interest in art in public space in our town and open the way to further projects like it.
photo: Denisa Váňová, Jan Habrman
