Prague, at Kafka Museum

 

While walking along the Vitava River, in the Lesser Town, we came across the Franz Kafka Museum. The museum's facade is simple, with a few doors and windows, with only a large black letter K in front of it. Uniquely,  there is a statue of two people urinating into a pond in front of the museum. This controversial bronze sculpture, called Proudy, made by artist David Cerny, robotically moves their penises as if to spell out something with their urine.

The figures are made of bronze and look as if they were made from stacked jagged metal slices. Each figure is holding its penis and urinating, pouring it in a random pattern. They are urinating on a basin shaped like a map of Czechoslovakia, so they are essentially urinating on Czechoslovakia. How provocative.

The museum's rooms are dark, as dark as Kafka's writings. The first section of this immersion into Kafka's world, titled Existential Space, shows how Prague shaped the writer's life, the imprint it left on him, and how that transformative force influenced him. His diaries and extensive correspondence with family members, friends, lovers, and publishers bear witness to this influence. The challenge for the viewer is to try and grasp the central conflict in Franz Kafka's life, guided by the writer's perspective.

The second section, titled Imaginary Topography, shows Kafka describing his city without naming the places where his stories take place, with only a few exceptions.

The reader may guess, for example, that the anonymous cathedral in The Trial is none other than St. Vitus Cathedral; that the road Joseph K. walks along in the final chapter of the same book leads from the Old Town, across Charles Bridge towards the outer limits of the Lesser Town. It is also said that the view from Bendemann's window in The Judgment shows the embankment, the Vltava River, and its opposite bank in the same way as it can be seen from Mikulášská Street (now Pařížská Street), where the Kafka family lived in 1912. This is to prove that the topography of Prague as Kafka wrote about is historical, even though no place names are mentioned.

However, for Kafka, this is irrelevant. His writing transforms Prague into an imaginary topography. The city takes a step backward, and is no longer recognizable by its buildings, bridges, and monuments. It is no longer important to identify specific offices, primary or secondary schools, universities, churches, prisons, or castles, as these structures serve as metaphors and allegorical places.

THE END

 

Source:

https://kafkamuseum.cz/en/exhibition

Prague, at the Church of Our Lady

 

When we walked in the Old Town Square of Prague, we found a rather chaotic square full with tourists, numerous street vendors and performers, and souvenir stalls. The buildings were a mix of architectural styles from different periods, including Gothic, Baroque, and Renaissance. While the appearance of the square is chaotic, many people found the square to be both bustling and charming.

Then, as if raising from the diverse buildings, stood this church with its twin Gothic spires. Its full name, "Church of Our Lady before Týn,"  reflects both its dedication to the Virgin Mary and its location in front of the Týn courtyard. We struggled to find the entrance to the church, after we walked through the narrow passageway between the old buildings, we emerged into a small courtyard where the main entrance to the church is located.

The church was built primarily in the Gothic style during the 14th and 15th centuries. The interior features tall, vaulted ceilings, pointed arches, and slender columns, creating a sense of grandeur and verticality typical of Gothic design. It was richly decorated featuring Baroque arts, reflecting its long history and the various periods of renovation and decoration. Many of the paintings and sculptures are from the 17th and 18th centuries, when the church was extensively renovated in the Baroque style.

The dimly lit interior, the scent of incense, and the quiet ambiance create a space for meditation and prayer. Whether we attend a Mass or simply sit in silence, the church offers a peaceful retreat from the bustling Old Town Square outside.

THE END

 

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_before_T%C3%BDn/