Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, has a unique peculiarity. A considerable number of architectural sculptures and statues on architecturally significant buildings, especially in the centre of Prague, which are simply erotic in character. These sculptures and statues are part of architecture from different historical architectural periods, especially from the 19th and 20th centuries. I was led to this project by the now deceased PhDr. Jan Nepomuk Assmann, who has been gradually completing this project over a long period of time. J. N. Assmann worked as a curator and researcher for the Prague City Gallery for about 30 years.
He approached me after a collaborative project when he saw my artwork and we started working together from then on. And we also agreed to work on an interesting project together, which we called Prague erotic, or Praga erotica. Unfortunately, Dr. J. N. Assmann died suddenly after three years of our friendship and the project remained in its early stages of development, when we formed the vision and the basic skeleton of this work. I have decided on this occasion to continue this project because of its very interesting concept and supporting character. Although this project is based on the visual art concept of photographic processing, the main product is basic, professional information, not only about the sculptures and sculptors and their authors, but also a lot of other information, applicable to the output of this project, which has an indirectly erotic character. Eroticism here represents the aesthetics, beauty and timeless perfection of the human body.
The above topics were treated from the perspective of classic black and white fine art photography, which was and should have been dreamily coloured. The created images of erotic sculptures, or rather series of individual architectural buildings featuring these allegorical statues and sculptures, were to have not only the basic shots (the whole, the half-body and the detail of the sculpture itself), but also many other shots related to the building. Furthermore, based on consultations with experts and historians of the Prague City Gallery, a lot of documentation related to the building was prepared, such as the author of the project, the author of the sculpture, the location, historical factual information and many other contexts of various nature. Unfortunately, this documentation has never been used to this extent. Unfortunately, everything is still lying in a drawer, as the copyright for this entire project has been subject to misuse and legal disputes.
In any case, pay closer attention as you wander around Prague's charming to intimate historic district. Dr. Assmann was right when he said that nowhere in Europe will you see so many allegorical and erotic statues in public as in Prague. The dynamics of the figures set in the context of different architectural styles is really quite remarkable. Finally, I would like to add that we wanted to, and still do, dedicate this project to the already mentioned late spiritual father of this project, PhDr. Jan Nepomuk Assmann. And I am also convinced that the photographs and the collected materials and information created during the time when J. N. Assmann was among us will, once the project is realized, have a considerable testimonial value for future generations, also in terms of technological artistic processing.
This cultural contribution is a follow-up to the article: A few little-known pearls from our beautiful golden centuries-old Prague. Read more here
Jan Vojtěch
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