David Černý unveils impaled Porsche 911 called Beetle at Prague 4’s BB Centrum

Czech artist David Černý has unveiled yet another sculpture in Prague. His latest work is called Brouk or Beetle, based on the shape of the Porsche 911 automobile, can be seen from the beginning of April in BB Centrum in Prague 4.

The almost 17-meter-high, eight-meter-long and three-and-a-half-meter-wide sculpture is located by the Alpha office building of BB Centrum in Prague 4 on Vyskočilova Street near the exit from 5. května Street. It took nearly two years to make and the investor is Passerinvest Group.

“Why a moving car? Its location by the Prague expressway, my ambivalent relation to the car on one hand, the dark side as a societal fetish, on the other hand a heavy addiction to the iconic Porsche 911 automobile since my childhood,” Černý said.

“Ferdinand Porsche, a native of Liberec, is the spiritual father of the popular VW Beetle. But few people know that he found inspiration for this fundamental design in the work of another constructor, the Austrian chief design engineer for Tatra, Hans Ledwinka, who lived and worked in Kopřivnice for many long years,” he said.

“His Tatra V 570 was even the subject of litigation between Tatra and VW after the war, a strange story. Of course, the Porsche 911, this beautiful piece of automotive design, is based on the Beetle. So it is kind of a Czech/German automotive jumble,” he added.

More recently, he made London Booster, a red double-decker bus doing push-ups on hydraulic arms. Ot was originally exhibited in London for the 2012 Olympics, but is now in Prague’s Chodov district.

Beetle took nearly two years to make and the investor is Passerinvest Group. “I’m very glad that almost two years from the initial designs, the sculpture has been completed. We all want life to return to normal as soon as possible, and I am sure that the Beetle from Mr Černý will help a bit to dilute what is currently a generally negative flood of information. And once life starts flowing again, the Beetle will become another interesting cultural and tourist sight in Prague,” Radim Passer, the founder and CEO of Passerinvest Group, said.

He added that his company has been developing BB Centrum for more than 20 years. “In that time, we have invested almost 1.6 billion CZK into non-profit projects such as parks, a school and preschool, a social center, sports facilities and playgrounds, a square, water features, etc,” he said.

“The idea to also have an untraditional work of art here originated a few years ago. We thought about various possibilities, such as building a unique water feature, but that was almost impossible to realize. We ultimately liked the idea for an installation with a car from Mr Černý the most, especially with regard to the theme and the chosen position,” he added.