When the new building of the Czechoslovak Embassy in London was opened in 1969, the distinctive work of sculptor Stanislav Kolíbal (b. 1925) permanently entered the local public space. The relief of white concrete, occupying 18 meters of the parterre of the administrative and residential building (today the Embassy of the Czech Republic), was created at the direct request of architects Jan Šrámek and Jan Bočan. The exhibition uncovers not only the background of the creation of this unique artistic realization, which forms an integral whole with the brutalist building, but also other unrealized designs by Kolíbal's interior garden of the embassy, which is one of his most complex sculptural-architectural works. The exhibition is complemented by up-to-date video interviews with Stanislav Kolíbal and with one of the architects of the building, Zdeněk Rothbauer, who also cooperated with Kolíbal on later projects. The exhibition also mentions photographer Jan Svoboda, who congenially documented Kolíbal's works, including the sculpture Separated Matter (1966), in the 1960s and 1970s. It eventually decorated the garden of the London Embassy as a dominant artistic element.
The exhibition runs concurrently with Jan Svoboda's exhibition Against the Light in the London Photographers ‘gallery until June 7, 2020. See https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibition/jan-svoboda-against-light