______1981-1983 CITY OF MOST

In parallel with his Terezín activities Sozanský explored the 0ate of Most, once a prosperous historic town in Northern Bohemia set in a delighful countryside. Victim of industrial devastation, the surrounding countryside was transformed into a lunar landscape, set with huge opencast lignite mines and gigantesque industrial complexes. The fate of the German inhabitants of Most, after the war transferred to Germany, is equally tragic, a permanent symbol of cultural uprooting. Sozanský’s efforts culminated with the transformation of the dying town into an environment of reasoned installations in abandoned houses and streets, recorded in a dynamically conceived documentary. This apocalyptic vision of total extinction, of an undefined chaos of ruins of civilization and of works of art, is one of the emotionally most pregnant examples of modern Czech art. In his subsequent projects Sozanský made full use of photography, possibly as an urgent warning of a threat to cultural identity.