II. THE HEROES SERIES

Defenestration is a grim historical motif in Czech history, yet it has appeared with disturbing frequency in contemporary Russia too. Since 2022, a series of Russian officials, executives, and public figures have died under suspicious circumstances involving falls from windows, officially classified as suicides or accidents and referred to by the media as “Sudden Russian Death Syndrome.” In this sculpture, David Černý evokes this phenomenon by depicting a fallen dictator lying face down on the ground, yet still alive. In a time marked by conspiracy theories, manipulated images, and deep fakes, the scene raises an uneasy question: is this real? Or is it another constructed image designed to circulate, confuse, and distract? Together, the two Heroes suggest a disturbing symmetry. One shows signs of cognitive disorientation; the other has already fallen, yet remains animated. Both reveal power as something fragile, theatrical, and ultimately dependent on the human body, even as it tries to deny that dependence. Violence, control, and illusion emerge not as opposites, but as parts of the same system, in which dominance persists until the body can no longer sustain it.