Statue of Franz Kafka

The Statue of Franz Kafka is an intriguing and modern monument located in Prague’s New Town near the Quadrio shopping center and Narodni trida metro station. Designed by Czech artist David Černý, this rotating head sculpture, comprising 42 stainless steel layers that rotate independently, is a tribute to one of the city’s most famous literary figures, Franz Kafka. Standing 11 meters (36 feet) tall, the statue presents a dynamic, fragmented interpretation of Kafka’s face. It is a remarkable piece of kinetic art, with its layers moving to create and deconstruct Kafka's face.

A little less than 80 years after his death, the Statue of Franz Kafka was the first commemorative tribute Prague installed to honour the city’s literary genius. Initiated by the Franz Kafka Society in the 1990s and finished by sculptor Jaroslav Rona in 2003, the bronze memorial statue stands in a small quadrangle on Dusni Street in the Jewish Quarter, the very place where Franz Kafka lived and wrote from. The statue depicts Franz Kafka seated on the shoulders of a headless figure wearing a suit, in reference to his 1912 short story ‘Description of a Struggle’ where the narrator sits atop the shoulders of an unknown ‘acquaintance’. The theme of the sculpture embodies the magical surrealism genre of the author’s work.