At the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, an exhibition about the Palach monument will begin

Prague - An exhibition about the preparations for the installation of the Jan Palach monument will begin today at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague. The author of the monument, which stood in a wooden form in the gardens of Prague Castle in the 1990s, is the American sculptor and architect of Czech origin John Hejduk (1929 to 2000). He donated his work dedicated to Palach's sacrifice to Prague. The monument will be unveiled on January 16, 2016, on the anniversary of Palach's heroic act. Jan Palach, a student of the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University, set himself on fire on January 16, 1969, in protest against the Soviet occupation and against how quickly people resigned to any resistance against it.

The exhibition, in the form of photographs, presents the circumstances of the creation, placement, and actual production of the monument, which is currently being completed. Palach's monument awaited its realization for 25 years. It is supplemented by a commemorative plaque featuring the poem "The Funeral of Jan Palach" by American writer David Shapiro.

The monument consists of two approximately six-meter geometric sculptures, with flames rising from a square base. The light one represents the figure of the son-lightbearer, and the dark one represents the suffering mother. In the 1990s, sculptures were erected at the Castle under the names "House of the Suicide" and "House of the Mother of the Suicide." They were inspired by Shapiro's poem, which was placed on the bases of the provisional wooden sculptures.

Palach's act is commemorated in Prague by a memorial plaque in the pavement of Wenceslas Square and another on the wall of the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University on Palach Square. Despite John Hejduk donating his work to Prague more than two decades ago, he did not manage to build a significant monument to the stirring and unprecedented act of the Prague student in the year when people commemorated its 45th anniversary, nor when they marked 25 years since the fall of the totalitarian regime.