Mendel Square in Brno, which is currently undergoing extensive reconstruction, will be decorated with Hrachovina. This is the name of the work that best met the criteria of the public tender for the construction of the monument on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the father of genetics, Gregor Johann Mendel.
The year 2022 will be marked by the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Gregor Johann Mendel. A man who was the first in the history of mankind to define the laws of inheritance on the basis of his experiments with pea crossing. He thus laid the foundations of genetics, one of the most important scientific disciplines today. A part of these big celebrations, which were recently sponsored by the President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman, will be the realization of a work of art that will remind Brnoers of the life and work of a world-famous naturalist.
“The legacy that Gregor Johann Mendel left not only to Brno, but to all mankind deserves a lasting reminder in the square that bears his name. In addition, it is an area that is only a few meters away from the places where the revolutionary discoveries actually took place. It is quite common in the world’s metropolises to pay tribute to their greatest personalities in a similar way. And we in Brno can be really proud that such a person worked here. The work should become not only a monument to Mendel’s exceptional legacy, but also one of the tourist destinations in the future, “says the mayor of Brno JUDr. Markéta Vaňková.
Pope Francis himself blessed the foundation stone of the future monument recently in Rome as part of an audience. The Holy See confirms that Gregor Johann Mendel is perceived in the Vatican as one of the most important representatives of the Order of St. Augustine of all time, comparable in his significance perhaps only to Martin Luther, explains the economist of the Old Brno Abbey, Jan Emil Biernat, OSA,. “The statue for Mendel, who was ahead of his time in his uniqueness, is a certain thank you and a natural moral commitment for us. More so since the results of Mendel’s discoveries were not understood during his lifetime and he received scientific recognition many years after his death. Mendel’s work is unique and has an overlap. After all his actions express a perfect example that does not exclude the possibility that faith in God and science can go hand in hand, “he added.
200 years since the birth of Gregor Johann Mendel has been included it on the UNESCO anniversary list by the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The celebrations will also be linked with the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The realization of the statue for Mendel should be one of the pillars of the bi-centennial anniversary. “We wanted Mendel Square to be a large public space in the future, worthy of the importance of the scientist it’s named after. Therefore, an international nine-member expert jury emphasized, for example, the most accurate description of the nature of Mendel’s legacy and his discoveries. The work that was chosen is again completely different from other sculptures in Brno. One of the attractions of this monument will be the fact that one will be able to walk through it. We do not yet have such a statue in Brno, “sums up the First Deputy Mayor of Brno, Mgr. Petr Hladík.
“The year 2022 is exceptional for the city of Brno. It will have been 200 years since the birth of Gregor Johann Mendel, a scientist who made peas famous, laid the foundations of geneticists and is significantly linked to our metropolis. The uniqueness of Mendel’s personality attracts geneticists from all over the world to Brno, and we are rightly proud of Mendel’s legacy. As part of the celebrations of this jubilee, a statue in honor of the Brno giant will be unveiled as a reminder to the founders of the science of genetics and its basic principles. The city of Brno will provide a subsidy of 10 million crowns, “added the 2nd Deputy Mayor Mr. Tomáš Koláčný.
HRACHOVINA (PEAS) WON
After a tough decision process, the jury chose a work of art called Hrachovina(Peas) by Jaromír Gargulák as the most suitable proposal. Mr Gargulák is the laureate of the Masaryk Academy of Arts in Prague award for artistic creation and his works are represented in galleries in the Czech Republic and abroad, as well as in private collections in Canada, Japan, Switzerland and Norway. Gargulák is also the author of, for example, the statue of the railway builder Jan Perner in Česká Třebová or the sculpture Promethea, which can be seen at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno. The victory in the competition surprised him and meant an early Christmas present, especially in the form of plenty of work. “It is said that no one is a prophet one at home, so I did not expect to win. And I fairly admit that it is a great commitment to participate in the work of such an important person as Gregor Johann Mendel, “says the author of the winning design
The idea took several weeks to form in the author’s imagination. The sixty-three-year-old artist, who studied foundry technology and always makes only one original casting, tried to penetrate the secrets of Mendel’s defined laws of inheritance as best he could during the competition. Because of this, he even bought a pea plant for home so that he could observe it at various stages of cultivation. “I felt like I was at elementary school in the old days, watching the peas grow, come to life, and based on that, I started sketching and modeling stelae. My wife and daughter made fun of me, they didn’t believe I could win at all. Over time, I toyed with the breeding variant, I considered going somewhere towards the DNA, but because Mendel worked with plants, it kept bringing me back to the pea. During his pea-crossing, Mendel based his research on the colour and shape of the seeds and subsequently discovered the famous ratio of 9: 3: 3: 1, which is also dominant in my sculpture, “explains the author’s process Jaromír Gargulák.
It was the detailed alignment of Gargulák’s proposal with Mendel’s laws of inheritance that decided in the final vote for the piece of art called Hrachovina, which should remind current and future generations of the groundbreaking discovery of Gregor Johann Mendel. “The winning design consists of a total of four separate objects and contains all the laws of inheritance defined by Mendel, while the monumental part of the work shows the crossing of alleles at complete dominance, where the resulting phenotypic fission ratio occurs using Mendel’s square. It is precisely depicted on the sculpture made dominantly of bronze, “explains professor emeritus and academic sculptor Kurt Gebauer, a member of the expert jury. The statue for Mendel will be funded not only from private sources, but public sources will also be aksed for support. At the same time, the organizers announced a public collection with a transparent account kept with Česká spořitelna, account number 6175140379/0800. “We are negotiating with specific partners who would be interested in participating in this internationally important project. Considering the fact that Gregor Johann Mendel was the father of genetics, we have prepared very attractive incentives for the most important donors, for example the opportunity to store their DNA directly in the winning statue, “concludes Jakub Carda, director of Společně, o.p.s.
