New installation to commemorate Václav Havel at Prague's airport in 2020

Prague, Jan 6 (CTK) – A new artwork by architect Petr Franta, commemorating the late Czech president Václav Havel, will be installed at Prague’s Václav Havel Airport this year, selected in an open competition organised by the Vaclav Havel Library (KVH), airport spokesman Roman Pacvon has told CTK.

Artist Petr Pistek told CTK that he plans to protest the selected work due to it ignoring some of the competition’s prerequisites.

Pacvon said that no date was yet selected for the installation of Franta’s work and the required construction is now in the early stages of technical preparations.

The airport administration decided to replace the current Forum Havlum installation, situated in the public space of the airport’s second terminal and calling attention to some of Havel’s quotes, in order to save space.

The KVH was asked to assist in the process. In its open competition, KVH’s panel of experts selected Franta’s proposal out of seven presented projects.

Architect Petr Hajek’s proposal ended up in second place, followed by the team of Miroslav Cikan and Pavla Melkova.

KVH’s Martin Vidlak told CTK that Pistek’s proposal finished fifth.

Pistek said a requirement within the competition was to incorporate a pre-existing interactive exposition about Havel.

“The panel then selected three projects, none of which meets this requirement,” Pistek told CTK.

Vidlak dismissed Pistek’s objections, saying Pistek simply misinterpreted the competition’s conditions.

Vaclav Havel (1936-2011), a playwright, thinker and dissident who became the first Czechoslovak and later Czech president after the fall of communism 30 years ago, is perceived as a great protagonist of the fight for freedom.

The Prague Ruzyne International Airport, founded in 1937, was renamed to Vaclav Havel Airport Prague in 2012.