The Story of Bratislava’s art installation KUVYT | MICE News

Photo point and art object in one?

kuvyt_bratislava — Photo Credit: Bratislava Tourist Board/Martina Mlčúchová

The story of the KUVYT Project was born during the lockdown, when the entire world was, and still is, busy fighting COVID-19. The author’s proposal and the inner need arose to contribute to the public space and to provide people with another option on how to stop thinking about daily and omnipresent fear. Formally, KUVYT is composed of six 8-feet uniform containers. These are visually light “steel boxes” that were processed by Lubo Mikle, a sculptor and the project author. This is how these unique industrial objects of various functions and meanings were created.

“The ambition of recreation and meditation zones of the KUVYT project is to mitigate the impact of the raw reality of the last couple of months, enrich the public space and support the genius loci of Bratislava,” says author Lubo Mikle.

MITIGATING THE IMPACTS OF COVID-19

The view from the installations was beautiful during the day and acquired even greater charm at night thanks to street lights. The installations lit up themselves thanks to solar energy far away – the perfect composition for a nice photo. However, the hotspots were not just a photo point or solely a work of art. In total, there were six of them. One of the installations was located in Slavín, overlooking the Bratislava Castle, while another object was placed in Danubiana Gallery, Čunovo and represented culture, fine arts and polarization. Other installations were strategically placed on famous spots around Bratislava, such as Devín Castle, Tyršovo nábrežie and Bratislava Castle, and represented various themes. One of the objects was even wandering-kinetic within the city of Bratislava.

In terms of concept, KUVYT works with current social topics, does not judge, polarise or radicalise, does not push to any opinions, but rather opens new possibilities and provides space for presentation, interpretation, discussion, alternative viewpoints, and other forms of social processing.

The installations together formed a joint installation in the final phase. They were placed as the final composition of 6 objects first on the Rázus embankment. Recently, the installation was transferred from one side of Danube to the other by helicopter. All objects are currently located on the Tyršovo embankment forming the final composition. The project was part of the White Night Contemporary Art Festival.

The KUVYT project

Colourful containers with geometric formations in the middle formed a kind of relaxation-meditation zone, which was supposed to enrich the public space of the capital and mitigate the impacts of the covid time. The process of creating the masterpieces had three phases, and in the last one, an unconventional star was formed by joining six shipping containers.