Pavilion of Humanity | CHYBIK + KRISTOF

Three main ethnic groups have shaped the development of the city of Brno since the 13th century –Slavs/Czechs, Germans, and Jews. While frequently far from harmonious, their coexistence has been highly productive, leaving a number of traces, visible and not, forming the collective memory of our city. The pavilion connect all historical layers of this place:

1850 – Medieval city walls shape JOSEPH II – Austrian-Hungarian Empire of European signifikance – a statue of the emperor

THE GERMAN HOUSE – The building, whose initial function was to showcase the advanced German culture, was transformed, slowly but surely, into a centre of primitive Nazism. On April 26, 1945 the House became the centre of resistance during the war of the centre of Brno. The resistance was finished quickly by artillery fire, which set the building on fire as well as caused significant structural damage to it.

THE SOVIET RED ARMY – The Soviet Red Army played a crucial role in the liberation of Brno, an event which brought a considerable number of civilian and military casualties. Very shortly after the war had finished, dead bodies were buried in temporary graves, many of which were mass graves. These were located in a number of places including parks.

T. G. MASARYK – On the evening of October 27, 1946– a day before the national holiday commemorating the foundation of the republic – the cornerstone of a proposed statue of Thomas Masaryk was laid. After February 1948 the statue’s cornerstone became – despite the fact that the monument never actually existed – a symbolic place where people would light candles.

COMMUNISTS – The original layout was substituted by five paths converging, in the centre of the park, into a fountain situated within a red five-pointed star symbolizing the communist ideology. In 1973 a sculptural group called Communists by M. Axman, M. Moráně, and R. Bartková was raised where the German House used to stand, but was removed in 1990.

Team: Ondrej Chybik, Michal Kristof, Martin Holy, Krystof Foltyn, Lucie Skorepova, 
Ivo Stejskal

Photo by Lukáš Ildža, Fabrice Fouillet and Ludmila Koresova