Artist talk Antony Gormley in conversation with Pavla Melková
7pm GMT, Embassy of the Czech Republic
Poetry meets Visual Arts:
Book Launch with Pavla Melková and Antony Gormley
Celebrating the bilingual publication of The Gravitational Field of the Inexpressible, Czech poet and architect Pavla Melková and leading British sculptor Antony Gormley meet on stage to continue an artistic dialogue that started six years ago in Prague when they first met and the idea of a joint book was born. In The Gravitational Field of the Inexpressible Pavla Melková’s poetry meets Antony Gormley’s drawings, circling the same centre and unfolding from the same horizon in their search for the essence of life, to emerge in a common language.
Antony Gormley’s images and a staged reading of Pavla Melková’s poems by a translator and poet Joshua Mensch will accompany the launch of this bilingual edition.
Followed by audience Q&A and a book signing.
PAVLA MELKOVÁ is a practicing architect, visual artist, poet and writer who regularly lectures on art and architecture. Her widely-recognized architecture is visible throughout the Czech Republic, where she has won numerous awards, including Architect of the Year (2014), the Prague Mayor’s Prize (2012), and the National Prize for Architecture (2012). She has published seven books on architecture, including most recently The Humanistic Role of Architecture (2016) and The Architecture of Reciprocity (2020), and is a regular contributor to professional architecture journals, anthologies, and collaborative works. Her two volumes of poetry include The Edges of the Day (2017) and Inner Time (2019). In 2012, she founded the Office for Public Space at the Institute for Planning and Development of the City of Prague (IPR), which she headed until 2017. Currently, she is a member and vice-chair of the Gremial Council of IPR, and is a partner at the architecture firm MCA atelier, which she co-founded. In 2015, she founded the course Concept and Interpretation at the Faculty of Architecture, where she teaches.
