Anthropomorphic sculpture (by the bastion)

This welded-metal sculpture, suggesting a reclining human figure, is the work of Prague sculptor František Štorek (1933–1999), a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Created in 1967 during the International Symposium of Spatial Forms in Ostrava, it was later installed, together with other symposium works, in Komenský Park in the centre of Ostrava. With the onset of normalisation and renewed ideological supervision of art, abstract expression came to be viewed unfavourably, and the group of sculptures from the symposium was ordered o be removed from the park. The artist was told to take the piece away at his own expense, otherwise it would be scrapped. Štorek’s work was saved only through the initiative of Hlučín architect Mojmír Sonnek, who arranged for the sculptor to donate it to the town. The sculpture was moved to Hlučín-Rovniny Primary School, where it became overgrown by a hedge. At Sonnek’s suggestion, the work was restored in 2013 and relocated to a more dignified setting in the small park by the town walls north-east of the square.