Opponents of the form of the memorial to J. Kašpar in Pardubice submitted a petition

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

Pardubice - Opponents of the winning design for the memorial to Jan Kašpar today handed a petition to Pardubice's mayor Štěpánka Fraňková. They gathered 1,264 signatures. They do not want a mast with a wind sleeve, but a realistic statue with the propeller of a Blériot aircraft. The mayor told ČTK that the councilors would address the petition.
    "The councilors will be informed about the petition, and it will be up to them how to proceed. This petition will certainly also weigh on the scales," the mayor stated.
    The city is preparing project documentation for the winning proposal, which will determine its final cost and the complexity of installing the mast. According to the mayor, it would be very complicated to build a 37-meter-long memorial at the Magnum high-rise building.
    "With this petition, we have expressed the opinion of the entire professional aviation community," said petition organizer Jaroslav Janda, a former pilot who organizes the Aviation Pilgrimage in Pardubice. According to him, the first Czech aviator has very few dignified memorials in Pardubice, where he was born. The opponents believe the mast does not sufficiently capture his legacy. Wind sleeves did not even exist during his famous era.
   "During the First Republic, the largest aviation days were held here, the Aviation Pilgrimage has already celebrated 23 editions, there is an aviation school, and the city is permeated with aviation. It seems to me that we do not know how to sell our history well. Pardubice could be proud of a statue of Jan Kašpar," Janda added.
    The first winning design is estimated to cost around one million crowns; the bronze statue would be twice as expensive. In the end, the councilors may decide that the memorial will not be built at all.
    The mayor, who preferred the realistic statue and voted for it in the commission, suggested that people vote on the design of the memorial in a survey, but the councilors rejected this.
    The author of the winning design, architect Petr Pinkas, defends his vision. The memorial is to be clad in bronze up to three meters high, featuring the name of Jan Kašpar and the dates of his birth and death. The heart of the memorial is an obstacle signal, a light that emits a subdued red glow. It is to be placed above the surrounding high buildings.
   "I did not choose between a figurative and an abstract concept, but sought the best possible form for the memorial. Only a significantly vertical form of the memorial, with a height comparable to the surrounding buildings, is, in my opinion, adequate and dignified for the significance of the first Czech aviator," Pinkas stated some time ago.