Opponents of the Jan Kašpar memorial gained 1200 signatures on a petition

Petr Pinkas: Memorial to aviator Jan Kašpar in Pardubice (1st prize in the artistic and architectural competition)

Pardubice - Opponents of the design for the Jan Kašpar memorial in Pardubice have thus far gathered about 1,200 signatures on petition sheets. They want the winning design in the form of a flagpole with a windsock to replace the second proposal in line, a realistic statue of the aviator. Jaroslav Janda, the organizer of the petition, informed ČTK about this today.
    "We will close the petition this week and then we would like to hand it over to the mayor," he stated.
    According to the city, the petition organizers have little chance of changing anything. Project documentation is being prepared for the winning design, which should serve for zoning proceedings and a building permit. The project will also specify the price, which is currently estimated to be slightly over one million crowns.
    "A valid tender was held, we have no reason to cancel it. The council or the assembly will of course deal with the petition, but it will not be decisive for us. It will also be up to the council members whether they approve the budget for the construction of the memorial at all," said Šimon Hradní from the press department of the magistrate.
    The expert commission clearly identified the winner of the competition from about fifty proposals. Although the women in the jury preferred the bronze statue with the propeller of the Blériot airplane, the opinion of the men, who were in the majority in the commission, prevailed. They favored a flagpole over 37 meters tall.
    The authors of the petition point out alleged shortcomings in the winning study. According to them, it does not sufficiently capture Kašpar or his life achievements. The windsock did not exist at the time of the aviator's flights. Kašpar's only biographer, Pavel Sviták, also rejected the flagpole.
    The author of the design, architect Petr Pinkas, disagrees with the petitioners. "The opinions that the memorial does not represent the personality of Jan Kašpar or the fact that windsocks did not exist at the time of Kašpar's flight seem pointless to me, and I am glad that the commission saw it the same way, selecting the proposal from dozens of others as the best," Pinkas told ČTK.
    The memorial is to be three meters tall, clad in bronze with the name of Jan Kašpar and the dates of his birth and death. There is also consideration of adding a short text. The heart of the memorial is an obstacle signal, that is, a light that emits a subdued red glow. It is to be placed above the surrounding buildings. According to architect Pinkas, this clearly links the memorial to Jan Kašpar and his life's work - aviation.
    "I did not choose between figurative and abstract concepts, but sought the best possible form for the memorial. The important thing was the location chosen by the city for the memorial, which is situated among high-rise buildings. Only a significantly vertical form of the memorial, that is, a height comparable to the surrounding development, is in my opinion adequate and dignified to the significance of the first Czech aviator," Pinkas added.