Winner Viktor Frešo will provide artwork for EUROVEA TOWER square

Viktor Frešo’s ‘Octahedral Body’ has won the open competition to provide visual artwork for the new riverside EUROVEA CITY square. A five-member jury decided the winner on 15 June 2022 after evaluating 25 designs from Slovak and Czech artists. Awards for the first three places were accepted by the artists at the opening of the artwork exhibition at Warehouse no. 7.

Frešo’s winning figure will stand thirteen-metres tall and was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man - it will comprise coloured spheres measuring 200 and 350 cm in diameter around an aluminium structure. The jury especially appreciated its balanced elemental shape, which will create the necessary urban-spatial accent in this architectural context. It is characterized by a distinctive silhouette, legible structure, and elemental colour forms.

This monumental object creates an interesting and integrating environmental element, allowing the contributory components to be further applied in modelling adjacent spaces and parks. The Commission also underlined the feasibility of this proposal in the announced price level of the contracting authority.

"I’m so glad to have won the competition - it’s my first," Viktor Frešo commented, despite being one of the best known and most successful contemporary Slovak artists. "An octahedral is a geometric system of atoms freely levitating around a central atom. It is a molecular formula which, by implementation into a physical body, brings the perspective of the human body’s physical transfer into a chemical formula."

In second place was ‘Flux’ by architect Petr Buš, which confronts digital experimental interventions in public space and in the country. His artwork refers to the dynamically-evolving world of information, relationships, connections, data, ideas and communications through vibrant flows and connections. A flow of various inputs and outputs, perforations and flows, visually and spatially articulated, enabling users and visitors to discover, observe, interact and interact with multiple surprising moments and spatial relationships in the proposed volume and surface of the artwork and overall site.

Slovak multimedia artist Marek Kvetán took third with ‘Pupa’ – a multimedia light-sculpture the concept of which is inspired by the cocoon...a newly emerging organism. In nature, this shape embodies a stage of creation and the transformative development of a new organism. ‘Pupa’ transforms into a new steel-aluminium form, which refers to the potential end of humanity as we know it, and creates a new form and opportunity for creation and transformation in the future IT reality.

"The Commission is confident that the winning entry will create another compelling urban feature. This will speak the visual language of the 21st century, and contribute to the development of public space in Bratislava," said jury member and director of the Ján Koniark Gallery in Trnava, curator Vladimir Beskid. The jury also noted the considerable conservatism of most submissions - with classical sculptural solutions and tentative assimilation of digital technologies and intermediate approaches.

"All commission members discussed the submitted artworks with clear deliberation and insight, which led to the three being shortlisted from all entries. We then placed them into winner, second and third places - despite no clear favourite emerging," explains jury member and academic painter Professor Jiří David. The jury also comprised Zuzana Pacáková (curator and artistic director of the White Night festival) who was the competition’s professional consultant, client representatives Ľuboš Kaštan (Eurovea 2 project manager) and Daniel Suchý (JTRE spokesperson).

The winning proposal’s artist received EUR 10,000, with second place receiving EUR 3,000 and the third EUR 2,000. The winning artwork itself will receive funding of EUR 280,000 to bring the creative vision to life, including all costs and licenses.

"We’re delighted that so many artists were inspired to create public artwork for Bratislava’s contemporary riverside. I also didn’t have a clear favourite, so I was interested in the jury’s decision. Now we will complete the creative process to ensure the artwork can be unveiled for the opening of the expanded EUROVEA, as an attractive modern symbol of the new district," says Pavel Pelikán, JTRE’s executive director.

All competition submissions can be seen virtually at www.euroveacity.sk.

Viktor Frešo’s ‘Octahedral Body’ has won the open competition to provide visual artwork for the new riverside EUROVEA CITY square. A five-member jury decided the winner on 15 June 2022 after evaluating 25 designs from Slovak and Czech artists. Awards for the first three places were accepted by the artists at the opening of the artwork exhibition at Warehouse no. 7.

Frešo’s winning figure will stand thirteen-metres tall and was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man - it will comprise coloured spheres measuring 200 and 350 cm in diameter around an aluminium structure. The jury especially appreciated its balanced elemental shape, which will create the necessary urban-spatial accent in this architectural context. It is characterized by a distinctive silhouette, legible structure, and elemental colour forms.

This monumental object creates an interesting and integrating environmental element, allowing the contributory components to be further applied in modelling adjacent spaces and parks. The Commission also underlined the feasibility of this proposal in the announced price level of the contracting authority.

"I’m so glad to have won the competition - it’s my first," Viktor Frešo commented, despite being one of the best known and most successful contemporary Slovak artists. "An octahedral is a geometric system of atoms freely levitating around a central atom. It is a molecular formula which, by implementation into a physical body, brings the perspective of the human body’s physical transfer into a chemical formula."

In second place was ‘Flux’ by architect Petr Buš, which confronts digital experimental interventions in public space and in the country. His artwork refers to the dynamically-evolving world of information, relationships, connections, data, ideas and communications through vibrant flows and connections. A flow of various inputs and outputs, perforations and flows, visually and spatially articulated, enabling users and visitors to discover, observe, interact and interact with multiple surprising moments and spatial relationships in the proposed volume and surface of the artwork and overall site.

Slovak multimedia artist Marek Kvetán took third with ‘Pupa’ – a multimedia light-sculpture the concept of which is inspired by the cocoon...a newly emerging organism. In nature, this shape embodies a stage of creation and the transformative development of a new organism. ‘Pupa’ transforms into a new steel-aluminium form, which refers to the potential end of humanity as we know it, and creates a new form and opportunity for creation and transformation in the future IT reality.

"The Commission is confident that the winning entry will create another compelling urban feature. This will speak the visual language of the 21st century, and contribute to the development of public space in Bratislava," said jury member and director of the Ján Koniark Gallery in Trnava, curator Vladimir Beskid. The jury also noted the considerable conservatism of most submissions - with classical sculptural solutions and tentative assimilation of digital technologies and intermediate approaches.

"All commission members discussed the submitted artworks with clear deliberation and insight, which led to the three being shortlisted from all entries. We then placed them into winner, second and third places - despite no clear favourite emerging," explains jury member and academic painter Professor Jiří David. The jury also comprised Zuzana Pacáková (curator and artistic director of the White Night festival) who was the competition’s professional consultant, client representatives Ľuboš Kaštan (Eurovea 2 project manager) and Daniel Suchý (JTRE spokesperson).

The winning proposal’s artist received EUR 10,000, with second place receiving EUR 3,000 and the third EUR 2,000. The winning artwork itself will receive funding of EUR 280,000 to bring the creative vision to life, including all costs and licenses.

"We’re delighted that so many artists were inspired to create public artwork for Bratislava’s contemporary riverside. I also didn’t have a clear favourite, so I was interested in the jury’s decision. Now we will complete the creative process to ensure the artwork can be unveiled for the opening of the expanded EUROVEA, as an attractive modern symbol of the new district," says Pavel Pelikán, JTRE’s executive director.

All competition submissions can be seen virtually at Eurovea City website.