The 2014 Metal Symposium was attended by Swedish artist Niklas Fännick. It was he who introduced us to the annually published German-English book called “Hephaistos” in which artists working with metal are presented every year. He also recommended some other artists who could participate in the Symposium and sent us an e-mail with a link to Australian artist Matt Hill's website.
Matt Hill created amazing work and we had the impression that we could not afford such an artist. However, since we intended to invite an artist from another continent, we managed to raise more money after negotiations with the sponsors. It was only then that we dared to approach Matt Hill. At first, he thought it was a joke, but then immediately agreed. He later said he felt like he had won one of the five tickets to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory (theme by Roald Dahl – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”). And we were jumping for joy.
In March, an event happened in France which had an unexpected impact on the Symposium. In a zoo, poachers killed a young rhino named Vince. A week later, news reached us that the Dvůr Králové Zoo had decided to remove the horn of their rhino to prevent anything like that from happening. Matt Hill in Australia also learned about the incident at the French zoo and asked to stay in Mladá Boleslav a week longer and to create a metal rhino. We discussed it with our partners and all agreed that it was a worthwhile subject.
A few weeks later, Matt Hill told us he would need to have a magnetic sheet-bending machine costing CZK 67 000 at his disposal. It was a shock to us. But the reward – a metal rhinoceros – was too tempting. We therefore approached other companies to ask whether they would like to participate in the sponsorship of this event and obtained a significant discount on this machine. On Matt Hill's arrival, we had everything ready for him. We even had pre-cut sheets of Corten steel according to his CAD drawings.
On the first day of the Metal Symposium, Matt Hill began to mark individual parts of the statue. It looked as if he was assembling parts of a giant jigsaw puzzle. Within the first days, he put together the whole rhino head and thus revealed his intention to the audience. For two weeks, he was working on the statue which he named "Hope" and dedicated it to the memory of the rhino Vince who had been so senselessly killed in the French zoo. Hopefully, Matt Hill’s rhino will not remain the only one in the Czech Republic with his horn still in place.
Find the artwork on GPS 50.4075161N, 14.9210219E
For more information on this artist see:
https://www.matthillprojects.com/
https://www.facebook.com/matthillprojects/
https://www.instagram.com/matthillprojects/