Vera 

The monumental, almost ten metres high, dynamic statue of the legendary Czech athlete Věra Čáslavská was an unmissable symbol for all visitors to the Czech House in La Villette Park during the Olympic Games in Paris. It is a symbol of the gymnast’s movements and a reference to the sporting achievements and life attitudes of Věra Čáslavská, a seven-time Olympic champion.

“The movement of the sculpture uses the principle of the gimbal, where the central part has the freedom to rotate in all three axes of the Cartesian system. When the sculpture is set in motion, it will be impressive. It’s a beautiful mechanical game, in its own way as graceful as the figures Vera was able to conjure with her body.”

“Vera and I have known each other since the 1990s and we worked together on Karel Schwarzenberg’s presidential campaign. It was her who initiated the idea that a statue should be created in Tokyo for the Olympic Games, which would remain there forever after the Games. She herself wrote a letter to the Japanese emperor,” David Černý described the original version of his artwork. “Then, unfortunately, she fell ill and died. And we agreed with the Czech Olympic Committee president Jiří Kejval that we would change the concept of the statue and make it in honour of Věra Čáslavská.