Gulliver

The construction of a giant wooden airship “suspended” above the DOX Centre is yet another testament to director Leoš Válka’s personal conviction that is reflected in the DOX Centre’s overall philosophy: that even in today’s fast-paced, globalized world where nothing that cannot be calculated, evaluated, or predicted is worth risking for, “things can be done differently”. For more than two years Valka and architect Martin Rajniš worked together on the design of what finally turned out to be a 42m long and 10m wide structure inspired by the shapes of the giant airships that began to cruise the skies at the dawn of the twentieth century.

  The shape of the zeppelin is symbolic. The early zeppelins represented the optimistic ideals of a new era of unprecedented technological advancements. With their remarkable monumentality and hypnotic dignity that would continue to fascinate generations to come long after they had vanished from the skies, they have always embodied the eternal human desire to fly, and have represented a certain utopian ideal.

The airship is to bear the name of one of the most famous characters in utopian literature. Gulliver will serve as a space for reading and public discussions of literature  ̶  fiction, poetry and critical writing  ̶  related to the themes of DOX’s exhibitions, which typically offer a critical view of particular aspects of the contemporary human situation.

Gulliver, Prague
Program: museum extension
Architect: Dvořák & partners
Authors: Leoš Válka, Martin Rajniš, David Kubík
Co-author: Zbyněk Šrůtek
In cooperation with: Zbyněk Šrůtek, Pavel Kocourek, Eva Fajkusová
Contractor: STYLBAU, s.r.o.
Completion: 2016