That is exactly what the exhibition Art Connects Us sets out to do. It brings contemporary sculpture where nobody expects it – into the streets, onto the squares, into the parks and to the edges of towns and out into the countryside. Nine artists, fourteen installations, thousands of viewers who perhaps did not even know they were going to an exhibition. They were simply walking – and art stopped them.
Vysočina is not only a region of hills, ponds and lookout towers. It is a landscape with a deep feeling for craft, for stone and for time. A region where the hand still meets the material, where wood, metal and stone are not foreign words. And it is here – to Pelhřimov, Horní Cerekev and Svépravice – that a new sculpture festival comes for the first time this year, joining contemporary art with the singular spirit and traditions of this region. Art Connects Us is not just a title. It is a statement of belief. The sculptures shown in Vysočina this year are not decoration or ornament. They are a bridge. Between the artist and the viewer, between a place's past and its present, between the village and the world, between you and the person standing next to you, looking at the same thing.
Galleries are wonderful places. But they have doors. And behind those doors everyone knows they are about to meet art – and approaches it accordingly. A sculpture outdoors has no such threshold. It stands between you and the shop you are walking to for bread. It sits on the bench where you wait for the bus. It looks out from around a corner where you did not expect it. And it is precisely this moment – the moment of the unprepared encounter – that holds a particular power. It does not arrive with a label and a caption. It simply arrives as a thing that is here, that has shape, shadow and weight. That asks you questions without waiting for a particular answer.
Pelhřimov, Horní Cerekev, Svépravice — three places of different scale, different character, different history. And yet one summer, one exhibition, one shared story. Sculptures placed in their streets, on their squares and in the landscape between them will draw an invisible thread connecting these places — and connecting the people who live in them. We invite you to follow it. To stop. And perhaps to meet someone you did not know before, over a work that surprised you both.
Because art — truly — connects us.
Michal Trpák, sculptor and curator
We let sculptures into our streets and parks so that we could step out of the daily routine for a moment. We want these objects to make us slow down, lift our eyes from the pavement and start noticing the space we walk through every day. Sculptures bring a new story into public places and give us a reason to meet. We would be glad to hear sentences like “let's meet at Mazlík” or “see you under the raven”, because art connects us and is a pleasure.
This approach is at the heart of the work of the Šipka Local Action Group. We work on the LEADER method – which means we do not direct ideas for reviving the region from behind a desk, but give a voice to the people who actually live here. We bring together the energy of neighbours, associations and local authorities, and help finance projects that local people come up with themselves. Alongside art in the landscape we thus bring to life new parks, cycle paths and social services. Because we ourselves know best where we like to spend our time and what the region is missing.
Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the Umění ve městě association, without whose inspiration, tireless enthusiasm and professional handling of the sculptures this project would never have come about.
Jakub Černý, Šipka Local Action Group
