Jakub Berdych: Theory of Relativity

(jiří macek) If you are going on a trip to the Krkonoše mountains, stop in Hořice. Jakub Berdych returned to his original profession of a sculptor last summer and sculpted a message to future generations in a rock in St. Joseph Quarry. Berdych, with delicate irony, upgrades the relation of energy, weight, and value criteria within contemporary society on the background of Einstein’s famous equation.

“I am leaving a tangible message, a short text message from the time in which we live, a brief description of the political and economical situation of today,” explains the head of the Qubus designer studio. The inscription, engraved in the rock of St. Joseph Quarry in Hořice, where traditional sculpture symposia take place, is inspired by the inscription on the Trenčín rock, which the Roman commander and soldier against the barbarians, Marcus Valerius Maximianus, ordered in 180 A.D. as a message to following generations about the stay of Roman soldiers on the territory called Laugaricio.

“The inscription paraphrases the famous theory of relativity by Albert Einsten – the most celebrated equation of which even the lay public is aware. Using iconic contemporary logos, it depicts an unreal text and the current state of society,” says Berdych.

While Albert Einstein relates energy to material and speed, Berdych’s definition transforms energy into Euros and represents the product of creativity quadrate and hamburgers. One can perceive it as the popular Big Mac index, which compares purchasing powers in individual countries based on the number of hamburgers one can buy for the same amount of money. Of course, the equation is neither an economical piece of work nor a physical one. Yet it provokes questions that are definitely worth thinking about, especially if we are in a forest where it is snowing so much that the speed of light and our contentment draw very near each other. Even though physical laws of nature exist beyond our minds, their actions are sometimes relatively more pleasant.

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