Old Car Bonnets and Bathtubs: Czech Sculptor Benedikt Tolar Conquers the Art World

Roofs and hoods of old cars and bathtubs from apartments built during the socialist era. Benedikt Tolar from UWB is conquering the world with environmentally themed exhibitions. He started at prestigious exhibitions in London and will continue in Denmark, Croatia and Sweden.

Benedikt Tolar, head of the Sculpture and Space Studio at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, presented his art to the London audience at two venues - the Czech Centre in London and the prestigious Winter Lights Festival in Canary Wharf.

At the Czech Centre in Notting Hill, London, Tolar presented his solo exhibition Grindcore, which attracted the interest of visitors and the media. The exhibition, whose title refers to the musical style, presents the artist's signature objects created from the bonnets and roofs of old cars, which Tolar has transformed into metallic paintings by specifically grinding layers of colour. "Benedikt Tolar's generous and entertaining objects are an unmissable part of Czech and international art shows in public space," commented Daniela Kramerová, curator of Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art, on Tolar's work.

At the Winter Lights Festival in Canary Wharf Tolar presented his work I vana be ... The light installation is made up of 32 discarded bathtubs typical of apartment buildings built during the socialist period. The work, whose title plays on the acoustic similarity of the English phrase "I wanna be" with the Czech word "vana" (bathtub), combines a light and sound show with an environmental message about water as a precious resource.

"There was no doubt at Canary Wharf that I vana be ... entertained people. And they enjoy it all the more when they can touch the object or even enter it, and thus become a bit part of this multimedia composition," Tolar commented on the reaction of the London audience.

Tolar's work, characterized by the processing of discarded everyday objects, acquires a new dimension in the context of contemporary environmental challenges."I don't have any illusions that such an effort could have any fundamental impact on society as a whole, but if the concentration – in this case of old prefabricated bathtubs – brings someone to be appalled by the brutal overproduction of everything around us, I will be happy," the artist admitted.

After London, Tolar's installation I vanna be ... is travelling to another European capital. Visitors to Copenhagen's Copenhagen Lights festival can admire the work until 26 February. In March, the object moves to Zagreb, Croatia, and in the autumn it will take part in festivals in Sweden and again in the UK.