Olympic Rio will be full of Zátopek's legs, they are made by David Černý

Prague - Today, David Černý presented his new sculptural object, which will appear in multiple copies at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, in Prague. Legs of the legendary Czech runner Emil Zátopek should appear on the walls, fences, and buildings of the million-strong Brazilian city. Whether a hundred pairs of Zátopek's movable torsos will gain similar popularity as his exercising bus exhibited four years ago at the London Olympics will be revealed in two months.

People can come to see what the legs look like at the Quadrio shopping center on Spálená Street, where several pairs are hanging from the ceiling starting today. As co-author of the installation architect Petr Kolář stated today, the legs serve as a connecting bridge between the Olympic house in Rio, the fan zone in Quadrio, and the Olympic park that will be at Lipno.

"It was designed specifically for Rio; it is a kind of guerrilla action, meant to be a reaction to the great tradition of graffiti in Brazil," Černý said. The president of the Czech Olympic Committee Jiří Kejval added that they required permission for the installation of the legs, but some locations were rejected by the organizers. Nevertheless, the sculptures are currently being packed and loaded into transport containers.

Zátopek connects Černý with the Czech participation at the Olympics just as František Kupka did in 2012. His painting Amorfa - Two-Colored Fugue was the motif on the athletes' jerseys, and Černý used it for his object at that time. This year, Czech athletes' clothing will be adorned with a drawing of Zátopek.

At the London Olympics in 2012, a traditional red double-decker bus supplemented the environment of Czech Olympians, which Černý transformed into an original object. The bus had enormous metal arms that lifted the heavy vehicle at regular intervals as if it were doing push-ups. The bus emitted sounds while moving up and down that could evoke athletic effort, but also other physical activities.

Reproductions of the aforementioned work by František Kupka were projected onto the bus windows. Amorfa - Two-Colored Fugue from 1912, which is one of the first works of abstract painting in the world, then animated with the bus's movement. The three colors used by Kupka in the painting match the colors of the Czech and British flags, and the gradual blending of colors symbolically connected the symbols of both countries.

The bus achieved success in London. The work was funded shortly before Andrej Babiš entered high-level politics. The Czech Olympic Committee then rented the work for their engagement in London. Later, the owner placed the bus near the headquarters of his company Agrofert in Prague's Chodov district.

The Czech Olympic Committee was not deterred from collaborating with Černý by the earlier experience of the Czech state with his Entropa before the London games. The work, revealed at the beginning of the Czech Presidency of the European Union in 2009 and playing with stereotypes associated with European nations, even led to several official state protests. However, many people liked it instead.