The Gate of Infinity
The unveiling of Aleš Veselý’s monumental twenty-meter-tall sculpture on 9 March 2015 marked the beginning of the symbolic transformation of Bubny Station into the Memorial of Silence.
Visible from afar, this allegory of the fabled Jacob’s Ladder consists of twelve beams holding up a railroad track made up of thirty-six railroad ties. More information HERE.
Time of Silence
In honor of the centenary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, a one-hundred-tonne block of high-quality granite was excavated from the Ruprechtice quarry in Liberec with the symbolic objective of using it to create a sculpture for the Memorial of Silence, to be placed in the revitalized area around Bubny Station.
The monument’s author, Jaroslav Róna, has chosen a simple yet highly compelling, slightly flattened oval shape that symbolizes the universe, time, and infinity – see, for instance, the ancient symbol of the Ouroboros. This monumental stone oval will be placed on the ground in the vicinity of the Memorial of Silence, along the future path we expect most travelers, pedestrians, and visitors to the Memorial to use. Through an opening in the oval, one will be able to watch the passing trains. In this way, the sculpture creates another symbol for the transience of things.
The new sculpture will visually dominate a crossroads on Prague’s museum axes. For travelers on the high-speed trains to Kladno (and thus also Václav Havel Airport), it will be a symbol of Prague’s cultural identity as it has changed over the past two centuries.
The sculpture will carry a secret message from Hannah Arendt’s famous book on totalitarianism, an important reminder of the horrors and warnings of the twentieth century.
“Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest – forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries. It is as though mankind had divided itself between those who believe in human omnipotence (who think that everything is possible if one knows how to organize masses for it it) and those for whom powerlessness has become the major experience in their lives.”
Hanna Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism
On 22 March 2023, the stone block for the future sculpture Time of Silence by Jaroslav Róna was transported from the quarry above Liberec.
