ALTAR

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  AN ALTAR FOR THE VÍTKOV HILL | 2014

So how do we return life to a place that suffered such fundamental historic development, as well as natural changes to the terrain? I thought about this sacred space from a more general point of view and found a connection with the sacral environment. Particularly when devastated and decaying, such places tend to return to being more viable form thanks to the presence of new functional objects for holy rituals. These rituals symbolically resurrect a desecrated space. In this case, a hill where a story is being re-created revitalizes its surrounding in order to finally gain its greatest potential. Veiling it in mystery gives it an imprint of a renewed holiness. An altar is a spiritual center of a temple, as well as the world and, can be viewed as an axis between that which is above with that which is down here – heaven and earth. I took this literal interpretation and raised the altar panel to a level that stood precisely on the border between these two domains. In actual scale the altar is overlarge, to appear serious and powerful at the memorial site as an object of desire and, to a certain degree, in order to dominate the surrounding space. Yet despite its generous size and dominance, this fails to be achieved in full. Rather than attempting an absurd hegemony over the power of the hill itself, the aim is simply the ratio between viewers and the sculpture of the altar towering over them. Individuals find themselves feeling strange when they are physically close, yet unattainably distanced from the possible glance beyond the realm of all actions. The certain meditative message and the symbol of being may be ostentatious yet still fully functional attributes.