2014

Unveiling of the Sculpture ´GATE OF INFINITY´

9 March 2015

The Sculpture ´GATE OF INFINITY´ was unveiled on March 9, 2015 at 4 p.m. in front of the Bubny train station building.

The initial stage of the Bubny project has been completed by the architectural study. The next step leading to the renovation of the railway station, which is closely linked to the history of Jewish transports from Prague, was the statue unveiling event. The statue's working title is a paraphrase of the foundation stone. The monumental object by sculptor Aleš Veselý was installed as a gate on the way of the war transports to deportation trains.

The track with sleepers pointing towards the sky symbolizes the Jacob's ladder. The sculpture is 20 meters high. The installation highlights the fact that the railway station, that carries the tragic fate of almost fifty thousand Jews of Prague, is ready for the renovation phase. Now it is only a matter of financing, whether the project will meet the deadline and be opened on the occasion of the anniversary of the first transports from Prague in autumn of 2016.

The non-profit organization Shoah Memorial Prague was founded in 2012 with one fundamental objective: to transfor the railway station Bubny into a Holocaust memorial called the Memorial of Silence, Bubny. 

Pavel Štingl, Director of the Shoah Memorial Prague. 

Tomáš Bouška, Head of Development of the Shoah Memorial Prague.

Leoš Válka, Director of DOX Center for Contemporary Art, the main partner of the "Foundation Track" Sculpture.

A Series of Exhibitions entitled A Road to the Memorial

January - March 2015

First in a series of exhibitions presenting a study for changing the Bubny railway station into a center for contemporary history took place at the foyer of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague and at the Gallery NTK in the fall of 2014. The exhibition was on display at Pasáž Lucerna, the City Hall of Prague 7, the New Town Hall in early 2015 and will be shown at the statue unveiling event on March 9, 2015 in front of the railway station Bubny in Prague.

Exhibition: Prague, The City of Eugenic Minds

Nov. 8 - Dec. 14, 2014

The exhibition EUGENIC MINDS comprised of a documentary by Pavel Štingl, animations and paintings by Xenie Hoffmeisterová, and literary artwork by Patrik Ouředník.

More information about the exhibition

In 2013 an animated documentary called Eugenic Minds was produced by a Czech independent production (http://www.eugeniove.cz/en). Director Pavel Štingl initiated cooperation between artists and animators in order to help find the parable to new findings of historians that look more like sci-fi than archival authenticity. Thus a documentary essay about the evolution of biological sciences of the first half of the 20th century was created.

Since its beginning, the entire project has had one main goal - to offer timeless meditation upon the abuse of the human pinnacles of science and education. Secondly comes the question of academic careerism, which under totalitarian regimes reaches self-destructive proportions. From this, we naturally move to discussing the definition of science and the situation when learning becomes a pseudo-science. In the third place comes the use of historical sources regarding the dominant theme of the first half of the 20th century, centered on the Nazi era. Nazism here is not only an inexhaustible fount of drama from the time when the value of human being or not being was seriously deformed, but it also provides examples of propaganda capable of visualizing a subject in an unprecedented manner.

The project is coordinated by the Shoah Memorial Prague that is preparing the launch of the Holocaust Memorial in the Czech Republic.

The Exhibition Eugenic Minds was the first presentation of the NGO abroad.

Screening of the film EUGENIC MINDS with filmmaker Pavel Štingl

Nov. 12, 2014 at 12 pm

The documentary walks us through the history of eugenics – the study of methods of improving the quality of the human race, especially by selective breeding-others define it as the temptation to take the fate of humankind out of the hands of nature and, literally, shape the future. The desire to control the dynamics of human evolution is not a new idea. The film is an exploration of the abuse of science, showing no mercy, even when at the cost of human lives. Štingl uses source material and archival footage combined with the unique use of animation. The talented graphic artist, Xenie Hoffmeisterova, was only one of the animators contributing to this film.  Mr. Štingl will answer Q  & A following the screening.

Venue: The Library of Congress, LIBRARY SERVICES CONFERENCE ROOM LM642, Washington, D.C. 

Exhibition: A Road to the Memorial

22. - 29.10.2014

First in a series of exhibitions presenting a study for changing Bubny railway station into a center for contemporary history took place at the foyer of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.