OPEN LETTER: TWO "COMPETITIONS" FOR THE MEMORIAL OF NIKOLA TESLA

We, as the authors of the proposals for the Nikola Tesla Memorial in Prague 6, awarded second prize in the public competition (no first prize awarded) from December 2007, would like to respond to the publication of the results of the second invited competition for the same memorial.

The organizer decided to disregard the results of the public, widely attended competition in 2007 (51 submitted proposals) and to announce a new "competition," which was invited (5 submitted proposals), and to realize the winning design that emerged from it. The organizer's procedure in the new invited competition raises many questions that we are compelled to present.

1. First of all, we must ask why the decision of the expert jury of the first anonymous public competition (composed of the head of territorial development of Prague 6, the dean of FAVU VUT, the rector of ČVUT, a representative of the management of the Gallery HMP, the mayor of Prague 6, a councilor of Prague 6, the chairman of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, ambassadors of Croatia and Serbia, the director of URM HMP, and others) was not accepted, and how to socially explain the unnecessary expenditures of taxpayers’ money (for the preparation of the competition, rewards for participants, fees for the jury…)?
2. What were the obstacles to the feasibility of the awarded proposals in the first competition? At the organizer's request, we supplemented all requested parts and expert opinions on the proposals, and we are convinced of their feasibility.
3. Why was the form of a limited invited competition chosen for the new competition, and why was the announcement not sufficiently presented to the public?
4. By what criteria were artists invited to participate in the second competition, and who were the members of the evaluation committee?
5. Why were the awarded authors from the first competition not invited to participate in the second competition?

Therefore, we expect a response from competent persons to the questions presented, so that we do not have to consider the actions of representatives of self-government in advance as unfair and socially unacceptable.


In Prague, on March 7, 2011

Ing. arch. Vladimír Vašut, MgA. Viktor Vlach, Ing. arch. Erika Vašutová, authors of proposal No. 14, 2nd prize (mail@u-c.cz)
MgA. Ing. arch. Petr Janda, Ing. Jan Mikeš, authors of proposal No. 16, 2nd prize (info@petrjanda.com)
Ing. arch. Jan Dluhoš (jan.dluhos@email.cz), MgA. David Moješčík (mojda@mojda.com), MgA. Michal Šmeral, authors of proposal No. 49, 2nd prize