Metal Trail

The 7^th Annual Metal Symposium was held this year with the main programme traditionally taking place in the premises of the Industrial School. For the seventh time, we invited five artists who work with metal from various parts of the world. This year’s symposium was attended by two women – Brigitte Danse from Belgium and Latifa Sayadi from Portugal, as well as Patrik Rybnický from Slovakia, Aleksandr Faley from Belarus, and the last participant, who travelled the greatest distance to the symposium, Jim Lapaso from the USA.

The title Metal Symposium suggests working with metal, and this is indeed at the core of the event. However, woodcarvers were also presented as part of the symposium for the fourth year running and this year they focused once again on benches. This year we welcomed five woodcarvers. Specifically, Václav Lemon, who created an artwork entitled “The Fifth Element” inspired by the film by Luc Besson. The remaining four woodcarvers addressed this year’s theme – the elements. Michal Jára created a bench called “Earth”, Ivan Šmilauer’s bench is entitled “Air”, and Marian Maršálek created a bench for the theme “Water”. Last but not least, Katharina Mörth from Austria created some very interesting seating inspired by the theme of “Fire”.

For the second time, the programme was also held outside the premises of the Industrial School, as the organisers aim to expand the activities to additional locations in the town. For example, as Katharina Mörth’s portfolio included wearable metal art, we asked her to stage a fashion show. She agreed and the second Metal Fashion Show was held in St. Bonaventure’s Church, followed by the Meescha P. Fashion Show

3D pavement art was also part of this year’s event. Street painting took place in the area between the City Theatre, Mladá Boleslav and the Sokol gymnasium, in front of Dr. Pekař Grammar School. People had the opportunity to watch the image emerge before them. The images last for several months and can be photographed using an optic illusion. The theme of the 3D painting was “We are not alone here”.

Painting on the walls in the Bondy Shopping Centre was one of this year’s innovations. The 9 images painted on the walls should make the atmosphere in the garages more pleasant. On the last day of the event, a crafts market was held at the Mladá Boleslav Castle and was used as an opportunity for visitors to try their hand at old crafts, which are unfortunately disappearing from our lives.

The closing ceremony of the Metal Symposium was concluded with a concert by the band Švihadlo.