In this 46th episode of the HIDDEN Podcast — and the first in a special mini-series featuring recent AVU graduates — we visit the diploma installation of sculptor Ondřej Navrátil at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. What begins as a playful conversation about stones, wild boars, and fictional fossils quickly unfolds into a layered exploration of sculpture as narrative, myth-making, and lived imagination.

Ondřej shares stories of transporting 300 kilograms of stone from a quarry, sculpting a time machine sphere, and carving fossils into the rockface of a Czech limestone pit. But beneath the absurdity lies a poetic sense of time — both personal and planetary. His work blends humor with sincerity, sci-fi with antiquity, and meticulous craft with total invention.

The result is a “sculptural comic,” as he calls it — a world where travelers get stuck in time, gods drown in sap, and relics from the future lie buried in the past.

🎧 More from HIDDEN
🌐 Website: www.hiddengallery.cz
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Explore on our site:
• Best of AVU Diploma 2025 – curated selection of the most powerful AVU graduate projects
• Exhibitions – current solo and group shows at HIDDEN Bořivojova, with a 2025 focus on emerging Czech artists
• Podcast Archive – interviews with artists, curators, and collaborators including Josef Bolf, Jiří Petrbok, and more
• TableTalk – informal public gatherings for deep conversations with artists over food and beer
• HIDDEN Store & Editions – unique original artworks and editions by HIDDEN artists

🖼 Want to support emerging artists? Discover available works, studio visits, and curatorial picks on our website.

🎙 HIDDEN Podcast is produced by Filip Kartousek, founder and curator of HIDDEN Gallery in Prague.