A café will open inside the large statue at Bethlehem Square

Prague - A temporary café will be established in the metal object of sculptor Čestmír Suška. One of his large artifacts, created by cutting the shells of decommissioned iron tankers and containers, will open today at Bethlehem Square in Prague for those who wish to refresh themselves in its interior during the Advent season. The café, named after its shape Šiška, will open today at 19:00.

Šiška is one of the largest objects that Čestmír Suška created from old unused tankers. Among the tallest is a lookout tower made from a giant kerosene container, which after its premiere at Suška's exhibition in DOX two years ago, now stands in the Botanical Garden in Prague. Šiška was originally created for the exhibition Sculptures in the Streets this year in Brno.

The idea for objects made from old large metal containers came to Suška during his residency in Vermont in 2005, where he encountered old heating tanks at a metal waste collection site. He soon mastered virtuosic lace-like structures and collected cut-off elements as a byproduct for future use.

First, he assembled them into flat installations and then further imprinted them onto paper. It wasn’t long before he began welding the iron elements back into entirely new spatial compositions. The successful project Rusty Flowers has been exhibited in artistic institutions as well as in public spaces both in Czech Republic and abroad.

Suška, associated with the generation of Stubborn Ones, always creates his sculptures as a dialogue between the external and the internal. He previously expressed this contrast in stone and wooden sculptures, and recently in glass as well. His work always allows light to permeate. They offer a view inside, as if onto something that was meant to remain hidden.