Wunderhaus of Art
According to its creators, the Wunderhaus object is intended to draw attention to the House of Arts in Brno as a wondrous or magical house with a certain “scent of art,” or as an oasis of visual creativity in an urban jungle full of cars and visual clutter—especially at a time when the exhibition Head and Hands, marking the centenary of the school’s activity, is taking place.
The work plays with the symbol of the Christmas holidays—the tree—whose shape and typographic character also evoke the familiar, oddly scented, hanging Wunderbaum air freshener commonly used in car interiors. The substitution of mysterious Christmas scents and real trees with a cheap, mass-produced product comments on the growingly commercialized and standardized interpretation of important Christian holidays. This is done with a rare lightness of humor, utilizing the global recognition of the Wunderbaum product and subtle shifts in the meanings of the words employed.
The idea and design were originally developed in a slightly different form last year in the Space and Media Arts program at the Secondary School of Art and Design in Brno, led by David Baránek. The program was the initiator of an unconventional Christmas decoration of the school’s tree at Francouzská 101. Rather than a traditional approach, Baránek guided his students toward a conceptual handling of the theme and its connection to a specific space. The result was an oversized Wunderbaum car air freshener inscribed with 101 % Francouzská. It was created in collaboration with the third-year students at the time, specifically with Adéla Zatloukalová. Suspended in the school’s vestibule, it was conceived as a response to the character of Brno’s “Bronx” neighborhood, as well as a symbol of pride in their own institution.
The Space and Media Arts program has long been developing students’ ability to perceive and shape space, to combine craft traditions with experimentation, conceptual thinking, and contemporary media. It emphasizes cultivating sensitivity to the environment, the ability to think contextually, and to articulate one’s own artistic vision.
