Vojtech Mica, ‘Phantoms of Corporailty – Urban Islands’, Sculpture Forest, Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail. Photo Di Caskey
In response to the unveiling, Vojtěch Míča wrote, “I love sculpture parks, especially those that let sculptures breathe and live their own lives without excessive sentimentality. It is also a peculiar human response to nature.
I spent a large part of my childhood in the Czech border mountains, where the forests were — and still are — full of remnants of original ruined peasant houses and their furnishings, as well as concrete military fortifications. As a child, I did not know what had happened there. My fascination with these peculiar remnants preceded my conscious awareness of the trauma that occurred there. And that traumatic state has persisted for many years afterward, albeit obscured and subject to multiple interpretations. This region of mountains and border forests is the Sudetenland – a region from which, after World War II, practically the entire German minority was forcibly expelled. It was carried out then as a necessity, a reaction to the war. And with that then entirely clear and jubilant consent, we did not realise that with this wholesale reprisal, we were, with relish, effectively shooting off one of the three fundamental pillars of Czech society and culture that had been shaped in this region for over a thousand years. The third pillar — the Jewish population of the Czech lands, whose tragic disappearance is so widely known I do not need to elaborate further; let each person process it on their own. Especially nowadays, when mass propagandas of all possible and impossible truths are once again being formed. First, let everyone answer for themselves: Who are you, and where are you headed?
At first, for the various remnants of German settlement found in the forests, I created pedestals to emphasise them. Later, this work evolved into purely sculptural objects —which you now see before you — that serve as an imprint of me, of my contemporary world, and ultimately of these societal traumas. We carry our places with us. In the end, it does not matter where these stories took place. Every deviation from entrenched positions — even if it is merely the act of stepping somewhere else for a while and seeing the same things a little differently — is usually a positive step. Nothing more, nothing less. Conscious corporeality, conscious living — not mere survival.
And when it comes to sculptures, the perception of nature, or anything else that surrounds us — our human scale embedded in a multitude of elusive details that form a whole, that chaotic regularity of order — assaults, attracts, and confines the observer at the same time. It compels us to step back, to adopt a different perspective, a different angle of view. We will probably never fully grasp the whole in its spatial and spiritual context. Every clearly articulated grand or trivial truth should be ushered in by this awareness. The fact that this interaction is a natural human part of exploring space, of its contemplation and intuitive understanding, does not diminish it in any way. The mutual interplay of the polarities of order and chaos, of the given and the random, of boundaries…
I hope you enjoy the atmosphere of the Sculpture Forest. I am glad to be in this place”
“Phantoms of Corporality – Urban Islands” joins other works by Czech artists that are already included in the Snowy Valleys Sculpture Trail. In 2024, Václav Fiala’s work entitled “Universum” became part of the Sculpture Forest and in 2023 Milan Kuzica’s work “Green Life” was permanently installed in Batlow.
The Consulate General of the Czech Republic in Sydney has been a long-term financial supporter of initiatives that showcase Czech artists in partnership with Sculpture by the Sea.
Consul-General of the Czech Republic in Sydney Zuzana Slováková, Sculpture Forest, Bago State Forest NSW. Photo Ready Aim Media