Metal Trail

This year, we hosted the 6th annual Metal Symposium, the main programme of which traditionally took place in the premises of ​​the Industrial School. For the sixth time already, we invited five artists from different corners of the world who forge metal in an artistic manner. Two women participated this year – Katharina Mörth from Austria and Nes from France, joined by Sjaak Klein Heerenbrink from the Netherlands, Ondřej Géla from the Czech Republic and Miguel Angel Velit from Peru, the most remote country.

The title “Metal Symposium” suggests the main component of the Symposium, which is metalworking. For the third year, however, we also hosted a group of woodcarvers who again worked on benches. There were four woodcarvers this year. Martin Kučera was inspired by the “Baroque” theme of last year and continued with it this year as well. His bench was called "Sit Beside Me". Three other woodcarvers worked on this year’s theme, which was “Freedom”. Václav Lemon made a bench called "Hips Like a Wardrobe" and Tomáš Dostál’s bench was named "Amor's Freedom". Václav Kyselka created a very interesting seat called “Free Bench”.

For the first time, this year's programme was held outside the grounds of the Technical School as well, as the aim was to extend activities to other places in the city. Katharina Mörth, for example, had metal wearable elements in her portfolio and we asked her if she wanted to organise a fashion show. She agreed and so the first Metal Fashion Show, followed by the Meescha P. Fashion Show, was held at St. Bonaventure's Church.

Another innovation was Pavement Art. The street painting took place in a large area in front of the Bondy shopping Centre. People could watch a picture emerging in front of their eyes and take photos. The picture presented an optical illusion of Trosky Castle in Bohemian Paradise and lasted for several months.

The Symposium also introduced a Graffiti Art exhibition on SD Kovo's walls on the north-eastern motorway. These works did not entirely match the organisers’ ideas, but here opinions differ. And that is actually good, because art should catch people’s attention and initiate a discussion.