Kampa in the Rain

After days of beautiful sunny weather, it is inevitable that the rain would come. Although not continually torrential, it was windy and wet and enough to soak through clothes and shoes even with an umbrella. Rather than stay indoors we ventured out to Kampa Island, known as an island because of the small canal that flows around it. Kampa Island has parkland, the Kampa Art Museum and lots of small restaurants and access to the Charles Bridge.

We stopped at the sculpture garden of the Kampa Art Museum to see their collection of works including David Cerny's Babies.

Sculpture garden of the Kampa Museum

On the waterfront is a line of yellow penguins.

David Cerny's Babies at the entrance to the Kampa Museum

More baby sculptures are placed up the gigantic television tower in Prague to make the structure look more inviting.

A rather whimsical figure was attached to a water wheel on the canal separating the island to the Lesser Town.

Across the bridge of the canal is the street with a graffiti wall - the John Lennon Wall - where 'artists' add their own tag or artwork so it becomes multilayered. There are still some reference left to the Beatles but the overall theme is peace and therefore relates to John Lennon.

On the other side of waterfront area of Lesser town that is separated by the Charles Bridge, is the Franz Kafka Museum. 

In the large courtyard is a sculpture by David Cerny called Pissing Men. Cerny's sculptures are all controversial and have deeper meaning to them, usually political statements. In this work, the two figures have segmented bodies that move, so when they wee, their hips move back and forward and their penis goes up and down. They wee into an odd shape pond that takes the form of Czechoslavakia. Apparently you can send a text message to it and the figures write the message before going back to peeing.

Watching the sculpture wee in the rainy weather doesn't help the urge of your own bladder!