Hundreds, maybe even thousands of inhabitants of Prague travelled on Sputnik. Really! This was a special case of a journey through childhood and the imagination in a fantastic vehicle inspired by the first space satellite launched into orbit around the Earth in 1957.
An unusual ladder-slide for children was designed by the well-known sculptor Zdeněk Němeček (known not only in Czechoslovakia at that time, his works often found their way to world stadiums, e.g. in Mexico City, Munich, Milan, Moscow). A huge Sputnik-shaped sculpture stood in Prague’s Stromovka park in 1960 and immediately became a popular attraction. It is a steel-reinforced concrete ball, weighing more than five tons, built in the then fashionable Brussels style, rising three meters above the ground and providing space for children’s games. This is an example of combining art – a sculpture with a children’s slide. Every day, many generations of Prague children climbed a ladder to the huge “belly” of Sputnik and slid down towards the ground. The attraction was so popular that after some time it got worn out and grungy, and its surface was no longer smooth. Sputnik quickly gained the nick-name, “Shorts Shredder”, as children regularly tore their clothes on it. Many residents of Prague retain such memories to this day!
Sputnik served children until 2003 when, in line with modern health and safety normes, it was decided to prohibit access to the structure. The sculpture stood in the park until 2009 and gradually deteriorated. In 2008, an incident sealed Sputnik’s fate – despite the ban, a boy climbed a slide and got stuck until firefighters pulled him out. It was then decided that Sputnik could not stand in an open space and must be removed from the park. It looked like nothing could save it. Then someone decided to give Sputnik a second home.
Mr. Rudolf Břínek asked the city authorities whether he could take Sputnik. Mr. Rudolf obtained permission on the condition that he would restore the structure and put it on display in a place where it would be visible, but not accessible, to the public. Sputnik moved to the garden of the villa of its new owner, where it can be admired through the fence, from the sidewalk in front of the property, to this day. You will find it at Na Babě 1779/9.
By the way, I strongly encourage you to take a walk in the neighbourhood where you will find a lot of original, unique functionalist villas, often designed by famous architects at the special request of various personalities. And an unusual view of Prague’s panorama 😊
Sputnik gained international fame. It was to be the highlight of the exhibition “Century of the Child” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMa) in 2012. Ultimately, due to its weight and size, it was not transported there, and was represented in the exhibition by a life-size photograph. Given its Manhattan reception, it is somewhat surprising that the Prague city authorities had not taken the artistic value of the sculpture into account when they removed it from Stromovka park … But this is not the first time that a work of art has come to be appreciated only after many years…
