Jiří Sozanský

Jiří Sozanský (born 27 June 1946) is a Czech sculptor, painter and graphic artist. He came from a poor background and worked in blue-collar jobs before being accepted as an exceptional talent to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. He took manual jobs also as a student and graduate to keep his personal and creative freedom. He is an amateur boxer, founder of the Boxart group.

His life was brutally affected by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and he was deeply touched by the sacrifice of Jan Palach. Sozanský was active organizer of various unofficial meetings and artistic activities at the Terezín Memorial or Old Most, demolished for coal mining, throughout the normalization until the fall of the communist regime. Then in the communist prison in Valdice and communist concentration camps at uranium mines in the Příbram District, or in besieged Sarajevo. In his work he consistently commemorates political prisoners and victims of the communist regime (Milada Horáková, Jan Zahradníček, Ivan Martin Jirous, Václav Havel, and others) and refers to literature sources, such as Samuel Beckett's '' Stories and Texts for Nothing'', Orwell's novel ''1984'', and Václav Havel, Primo Levi's and Rudolf Höss's writings. He is a recipient of the award ''Knight of Czech Culture'',České noviny: Jiří Sozanský is the Knight of Czech Culture
/ref> the certificate ''Participant of the Resistance and Opposition to Communism'' and was awarded ''For his extraordinary contribution to the reflection of modern history'' by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes.USTR Awards for Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights
/ref> He is the author of the triptych ''Jan Palach - Ascension'' at Karolinum and ''Memorial to the Victims of the August 1968 Invasion and the Victims of the 1969 Protests'' for Wenceslas Square.

Life

Jiří Sozanský was born on 27 June 1946 in Prague. He was born to parents who met on the barricades during the Prague Uprising and married soon after. He never knew his biological father Ivan Sozansky, who came from Subcarpatian Ukraine. Ivan Sozansky was arrested in 1948 while trying to cross the state border, but managed to escape from prison. It has not been possible to trace whether he was forcibly deported to the Soviet Union after the war. In 1952 a court declared Ivan Sozanský missing.

Jiří grew up with his mother in very poor circumstances and learned early in his childhood that he had to fend for himself. His mother was a trained hairdresser and, thanks to her occupation, had a wealth of social contacts. Later she remarried and moved with Jiří to Pec pod Sněžkou for a time to meet a new partner. She separated from her partner when Jiří was 10 years old. At that time, he spent weekends and part of his holidays with his grandmother Veronika and aunt Milena, where he met a year older Josef Kapín, later boxing champion, with whom he met again as an adult during boxing training. Aunt Milena worked as a curator at the National Gallery, where Jiří sometimes came to see her with his mother and learned about Czech Baroque art. Around the age of 13, his mother arranged a visit of the sculptor Jan Kodet, who first bought his drawing and encouraged him to become an artist.

After graduating from primary school, he trained as a mason in the company ''Pozemní stavby'' (Ground Construction) in 1960–1963. Active sportsmen worked as teachers at the school and under the influence of Václav Pšenička Jiří Sozanský started to train weightlifting at the age of 15. The librarian of ''Pozemní stavby'' introduced Sozanský to the music theorist Jaromír Paclt, who lent him books by French existentialists and publications on modern world art. Thanks to Paclt, he also met Zbyněk Sekal. Artist of the enterprise Zdeněk Fultner founded an art club for him, provided him with painting materials and supported him in his preparation for studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. After graduating from the apprenticeship, he passed the entrance exams for evening studies at the ''Václav Hollar School of Graphic Arts'', but was dissatisfied with the low standard of the local teachers and left the school.

Since 1963 he worked as a bricklayer, scaffolder, later as a digger and after undergoing rheumatic fever and long-term rehabilitation as a stoker. From 1965 he was employed by the Geological survey as a driver's mate and for another year as a stagehand at Vinohrady Theatre. In the mid-1960s, he visited the Bohdan Kopecký exhibition and his expressive records of the devastated landscape of the Most regionSozanský J, in: Sozanská O. (ed.), 2021, p. 161 influenced Sozanský so much that he later created some of his major works there.

At that time, he attended drawing courses at Municipal House with the painter František Nedvěd and then with the graphic artist Miloš Čech at the National House in Vinohrady and prepared for the Academy exams. There he was admitted at the third attempt in 1967 as an exceptional talentRadan Wagner, interview with Jiří Sozanský, 1 August 2015
/ref> and was excused from secondary education. In 1967–1973, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in the studio of prof. František Jiroudek, in the studio of drawing led by Jiří John and the studio of graphic arts, headed by prof. Ladislav Čepelák. It was here that he met Zuzana Nováčková, who helped him print graphic sheets after graduation. During his studies, he chose the Most region and Steel factory in Kladno, where he worked on temporary jobs in 1968–1971, for his plein air drawings. In the studio of František Jiroudek at the same time studied Petr Pavlík, Petr Kouba and Marie Blabolilová and two years older Miroslav Koval. Jiří Sozanský's closest friends during his studies were Antonín Kroča, Jiří Novák and the sculptor Lubomír Janečka.

As for his entire generation, the Soviet occupation in August 1968 and then the sacrifice of Jan Palach became a lifelong trauma for Jiří Sozanský. He repeatedly reflects both events in his work, which focuses on extreme situations.Jiří Sozanský: Sixty-ninth - the last things of man, ČRo Vltava, 2009
/ref> In 2024, he created the monumental ''Memorial to the Victims of the August 1968 Invasion and the Victims of the 1969 Protests''. The memorial is provisionally located in the neighbourhood of the Museum Kampa and is destined for final installation near the National Museum in Prague. The early 1970s for him were marked by scepticism as to whether art still had any meaning in the new reality of an occupied country. Sozansky rejected passivity and decided to search for the causes of evil. While still a student, he made a trip to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, then to Theresienstadt Ghetto, and in 1978 he went to Auschwitz with Ivan Bukovský. In Terezín, where he commuted regularly in the second half of the 1970s, studying archives with prisoners' testimonies helped him to find an important theme and overcome a creative crisis.

In 1971, while studying, he married his first wife, Jaroslava, with whom he has a son, Jiří. The marriage gradually broke down under the pressure of external circumstances of the normalisation period, problems with obtaining an apartment and existential worries, and ended in divorce in 1985. In 1988 Jiří Sozanský married the psychologist Olga Pajerová.

In 1970 Sozanský was introduced to Olbram Zoubek by his former shift foreman from the heating plant Ladislav Junek, who was a plasterer by profession. He got his first small studio in 1972 and at the same time had the opportunity to work on his sculptures in the studio of Olbram Zoubek. Ladislav Junek helped him with the moulding at first and Olbram Zoubek allowed him to cast some of the sculptures in a mixture of lead and tin. Sozanský finished studies at the Academy with honours in 1973, defending his diploma thesis on the subject of human suffering, where, in addition to paintings and drawings, he also presented his sculptural works. After graduating from the Academy, Sozanský continued to work in manual professions in order to maintain his personal independence and not be restricted in his own work.
He did not become a member of any organization and did not apply for scholarships awarded by the Official Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists. Olbram Zoubek also supported him financially at that time and to repay the debt, Sozanský went to Litomyšl in 1974–1976 to work with a group of artists who restored the castle sgraffito. In the mid-1970s he suffered a serious illness, experienced a deep creative and existential crisis and was looking for a new subject for his work.

In 1973, he visited the Terezín Memorial for the first time and then, from 1977, went there to study the archives. Later he created sculptures and installations directly for the environment of the Small Fortress. Since the 1970s, he was in contact with Ota Kraus, who wrote hundreds of articles and several books about Nazism and the Holocaust. Sozanský attempted to depict this topic artistically only after the death of Ota Kraus at the beginning of the new millennium, under the influence of Primo Levi's texts and the writings of Rudolf Höss.

In the 1970s he met František Ronovský, Josef Jíra and Otakar Slavík. When Slavík signed Charter 77 and was about to lose his studio, Sozanský made a fictitious exchange with him for his rented warehouse in Libeň, allowing Slavík to use the studio until he emigrated to Vienna. Sozanský was also in contact with Vladimír Janoušek and Adriena Šimotová, and was familiar with the work of Alina Szapocznikow and Erzsébet Schaár, whose existential works are close to his nature. In 1976 he took part in a collective exhibition of young artists, which ended in a confrontation with a member of the normalized official ''Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists'' Vladimir Šolta. In 1978, Petr Pavlík together with Jiří Sozanský and curator Marcela Pánková organized a generational exhibition ''Confrontation'' at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Krč. The exhibition was a direct reaction to the impotent work of young authors who met the criteria of the selection committee of the normalized official ''Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists''. and was prematurely terminated at the intervention of the Communist party authorities.

During the period of the most rigid normalization (1978–1979), when many artists were not allowed to exhibit, together with P. Pavlík, I. Bukovský, J. Načeradský and J. Kroutvor, he was meeting with professor Jiří Kotalík and co-organised visits to the studios of his generational peers and important artists of the 1960s generation. In 1979, together with Ivan Bukovský, he participated in a forensic autopsy, and this experience influenced his artistic means for a long time. In the 1970s he became closely acquainted with the texts of Franz Kafka, which then indirectly influenced his drawings and objects from 1978 to 1985. Much more clearly reflected in Sozansky's work were the '' Stories and Texts for Nothing'' by Samuel Beckett (the ''Outsiders'' series) and then especially Orwell's novel ''1984''.denik.cz/ostatni_kultura/rok-orwell-aneb-memento-pro-dalsi-generace-20141022.html Jana Podskalská, Rok Orwell aneb memento pro další generace, Deník.cz, 23.10.2014
/ref>

At the turn of the 1970s and 1980s he was friends with Jiří Načeradský and Zdeněk Beran. He invited both of them together with Oldřich Kulhánek to a private symposium at the Small Fortress in 1980. Thanks to Ivan Neumann, who worked in the Aleš South Bohemian Gallery in Hluboká nad Vltavou in the 1970s, and also thanks to the support of the director of the National Gallery Jiří Kotalík for the entire Sozanský generation, purchases of his works for state collections were made in the late 1970s. In 1981–1982, he visited Starý Most, where he realized some of his projects (''Zone'', ''Escape - Most 82'',Escape (Most 1982), YouTube Video
/ref> ''Process'') in the ruins of an old building that had to give way to coal mining. In 1982, Meda Mládková together with the U.S. ambassador Jack Matlock visited Jiří Sozanský's studio and saved photo documentation of the events ''Terezín 80'' and ''Most 81-82''. The intended exhibition in Michigan was sabotaged by the ''Artcentrum'',Artcentrum was founded in 1964 as an agency of the then communist Czechoslovakia to promote the sale of works of art abroad. which refused to export the works created during these events. In 1985, ''Artcentrum'' again refused to allow the sale of Sozansky's sculptures and to export them for the group exhibition of Czech artists, ''Anxiety'', which Meda Mládková prepared in United States. Meda Mládková then sent a cash donation to Jiří Sozanský and in 1988 arranged a scholarship from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. In the 1980s, Jiří Sozanský founded the ''Box Art'' association with his colleagues, painter Ivan Komárek and sculptor Vojtěch Adamec Jr.

At the invitation of Jiří Kotalík, he participated in the 1988 Biennale di Venezia together with Ivan Ouhel, where he was given the opportunity to show a representative cross-section of his work in the Czech pavilion. In the same year he received a scholarship from the ''Pollock-Krasner Foundation''. After the Fall of Communism in 1989, he joined a petition to defend the director of the National Gallery Jiří Kotalík and became involved in the ''Council for the Defence of Culture''. In 1990, together with a commission of the Czech National Council, he went to one of the worst prisons of the communist regime in Valdice, known for its cruel abuse of prisoners. He visited Valdice repeatedly, bringing books and founding an art club there. Together with the prisoners, he created a ''memorial to the victims of totalitarianism'' in the so-called 3rd ward.Jiří Sozanský: Memorial to the Victims of Communism and its History, in: Olga Sozanská (ed.), ''Den dvacátý sedmý'', 2010, pp. 44–55

Sozanský's previous experience in Terezín led him to become interested in the fate of the people in besieged Sarajevo, where he travelled repeatedly during the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later in 1995–1996 (''Urbicida'', ''Zero''). In 1995, he received an honorary mention from the ''Sarajevo Peace Centre'' and in 2007 a commemorative medal for his long-standing cooperation with Terezín Memorial.

Together with Prof. Jiří T. Kotalík and his wife, PhDr. Olga Sozanská, he founded in 1992 ''Symposion civic association'', which carries out projects that build on his unofficial activities from the 1970s and late 1980s. The Symposion's activities are focused exclusively on non-commercial activities with a broader civilizational reach and include several dozen domestic and international projects. In 1992–1997, he initiated and co-organized, together with ''Symposion'' and North Bohemian Gallery of Fine Arts in Litoměřice, the international creative symposia ''Baroque and Today'' and ''Open Dialogue'' in Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary in Litoměřice.Kotalík J T, 2005, unpaginated The project ''Karlín Zone A'', which responded to the disastrous flood of 2002, was logically included in the overall context of Jiří Sozanský's work.

Richard Drury characterized Jiří Sozanský's work "as an eternal struggle between defiant humanist values and brutal ideological dogma." The cynical evil of the power machine is explored, exposed, and rendered with drastic expression in his work.Richard Drury, in: Jiří Sozanský, House of Fear, 2018, pp. 5–6 The trial of Milada Horáková, who was executed on his own fourth birthday, became a very personal subject for Sozanský. Throughout his work, Sozanský recalls the historical continuity that the communist regime artificially interrupted. The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent normalization deprived his generation of the chance to exist in a natural cultural climate that would not be distorted by ideological manipulations.

Sozansky's work was unacceptable to the communist regime, but as a warning against the dangerous development of human society it remained relevant after 1989. A significant part of his creative thinking is the message contained in Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, whose validity transcends historical epochs and national borders. In 2016, the Minister of Culture awarded him the title ''Knight of Czech Culture'' and in 2019 he was certified by the Ministry of Defence as a participant in the resistance and opposition to communism.

He is a member of the ''Association of Czech Graphic Artists Hollar'' and in 1991–2010 was a member of the Mánes Union of Fine Arts.

Scholarships, awards, grants

* 1971 17 November (Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy and International Student Day) Prize, Academy of Fine Arts in Prague
* 1988 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, New York Scholarship
* 1995 Grant
* 1995 Honorable Mention ''International Peace Centre'', Sarajevo
* 2007 Medal for long-term cooperation with Terezín Memorial
* 2016 ''Knight of Czech Culture'', Award of the Minister of Culture
* 2019 Certificate of Participation in Resistance and Opposition to Communism
* 2022 Award for outstanding contribution to the reflection of modern history from the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes
* 2024 Medal of Merit 1st Grade in the arts

Work

Jiří Sozanský is one of those artists whose work immediately resonates with the pulse of the times in which they live. He entered the Czech art scene in the mid-1970s, at the height of normalisation and creative unfreedom. His entire artistic output was committed to opposing all forms of violence, despotism and ideological dictatorship that trampled on human rights and human dignity. He is known as a non-conformist artist and a man of distinct opinions and attitudes, expressing himself through large-scale multimedia projects tied to a specific place. His activities in unusual places and spaces revived the subdued art scene of the 1970s. His actions spoke to the conscience of a "normalising society", even at considerable personal risk. As an eternal theme, he is interested in man in extreme situations, his inner state of mind and external reactions towards the human community. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects, installations, environments and performances react to a specific environment and social situation as an urgent warning memento. Such were his events in Terezín, Most, Vysočany or Veletržní palác, which were logically followed by projects realized after 1990 in the Valdice Prison and in the former Jesuit Church in Litoměřice as well as a number of events reflecting the wartime suffering of the inhabitants of Sarajevo, presented in the Czech Republic and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is one of the artists who take a responsible role in the concept of art as a personal statement about the world around us. Sozanský repeatedly and urgently raises important and not very popular topic, which in his artistic reflection also mirrors the state and direction of our civilization." (abbreviated quote, see e.g. J. T. Kotalík: from the catalogue of the exhibition "Sutiny - sculptures prints paintings collage" Municipal House, Prague 2009, Amnézie, Municipal House Prague 2019)J. T. Kotalík, in: Sozanský J, Jodas M, 2019, p. 15 Sozansky's paintings advocating the victims of mass violence have predecessors in the ''Horrors of War'' series by Francisco Goya and ''Guernica'' by Pablo Picasso, his sculptures express a deep connection with the existentialism of Alberto Giacometti.

Sozansky's work is characterized by thematic cycles, coherence and continuity of topics, and a multimedia synthetic approach, combining artistic techniques with performance and live actors in a unique scenography. His distinctive artistic signature is charged with dynamic expression and bold color, creating the illusion of a thunderous struggle. The baroque principle of heightened plastic dynamism is generally encoded into his dramatic figure modelling. He compensates for this by the sometimes cold architectural setting of the action or the meditative position of the portraits, and by using fragments of texts that were the inspiration for a particular work.Jiří Sozanský, Introduction to the project Tribute to Jan Zahradníček, Kámen a kost, 2001, p. 5

Early work

During his training for the exams at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Jiří Sozanský was engaged in drawing and painting portraits, and while working for the Geological survey he painted landscapes. Already during his studies and then until 1979 he devoted himself to graphic art. In 1968–1973 he created a series of prints with biblical themes, drawings and paintings from the surrounding of the Kladno steelworks and the Most region. During his visits to the basement apartment of Mr. Švacha, who was a model in the sculpture studio of the Academy of Fine Arts, the series of graphic prints ''Job'' and ''Basement'' were created. Sozanský depicts socially compelling and relevant content, seen against the broader context of human existence. The human being is depicted naked, alone and without props, as close to pathos as to the misery of humanity. Sozansky's reflection on old age, suffering, loneliness and pain is a timely parallel to the story of the Old Testament Book of Job. In 1971, he won the 17 November Prize for his series of paintings ''From the Life of a Blind Man''. His graduation work on the theme of human suffering was based on the diary of Albert Speer.Jan Kříž, in: Jiří Sozanský: Kresby, Brno 1986

From 1970 he modelled sculptures in the studio of Olbram Zoubek. The model for the sculpture with a deeply humanistic message ''Silent Lament'' was Mr. Švacha. A series of frottage paintings were made from the sculpture, and the entire ''Basement'' series became the basis for scenographic models depicting a man in extreme situation. He concluded his travels to the Theresienstadt Ghetto, which he undertook from 1973, with his first solo exhibition of paintings, drawings and sculptures in 1976. From 1975 came the series of large-scale tempera drawings ''Prophets'' and ink drawings of the series ''Old Men''. Sozansky's sculptures ''Memento'' and ''Silent Lament'' became part of the collection of the Terezín Memorial.

Jiří Sozanský, Z cyklu Job (1972) II.jpg, From the cycle ''Job'' (1972)
Jiří Sozanský, Z cyklu Job (1972).jpg, From the cycle ''Job'' (1972)
Jiří Sozanský, Z cyklu Suterén (1978) II.jpg, From the cycle ''Basement'' (1978)
Jiří Sozanský, Z cyklu Suterén (1978) III.jpg, From the cycle ''Basement'' (1978)
Jiří Sozanský, Z cyklu Suterén (1978).jpg, From the cycle ''Basement'' (1978)
Jiří Sozanský, Tichý nářek (1973), Památník Terezín.jpg, Silent Lament (1973), Terezín Memorial
Jiří Sozanský, Mučedník (70. léta), Památník Terezín.jpg, Martyr (1970s), Terezín Memorial
Jiří Sozanský, Poutník (70. léta), Památník Terezín.jpg, Pilgrim (1970s), Terezín Memorial
Jiří Sozanský, Poutník (70. léta).jpg, Pilgrim (1970s)
Jiří Sozanský, Poutník (70. léta) II.jpg, Pilgrim (1970s)

In 1977, he began working with space and created his first environments together with Ivan Bukovský in the courtyard of Small Fortress. For his artistic metaphors of human figures in extreme situations, he used a construction of wire mesh and plaster.Jiří Kotalík, in: Jiří Sozanský 1970–1989 In the series ''Basement'' (1979), the human figure gets lost in the maze of a house and recalls the trauma of the normalisation era, which Marie Langrová described as wandering from wall to wall. In 1979–1980, drawings of the series ''Organism of the City'' and in 2006–2010, reconstructed models of extreme situations were created, where small human figures serve as the scale of sculptural architectures (''Models of Extreme Situations'', 1979–2006, ''Skeletons'', 1984–2009, ''Homage to Jan Palach'', 2008, ''Mater Mortis'', 2010)

Jiří Sozanský, Terezín, 1978.jpg, ''Small Fortress'', 1978
Jiří Sozanský, Terezín, Modely mezních situací (1979-1980).jpg, ''Models of extreme situations'', Small Fortress (1979–1980)
Jiří Sozanský, Terezín, Kammer, 1980.jpg, ''Kammer'', Small Fortress 1980
Jiří Sozanský, Terezín, Pevnost (2021) III.jpg, ''Small Fortress'' (2021)
Jiří Sozanský, Terezín, Pevnost (2021) VII.jpg, ''Small Fortress'' (2021)

1980–1985

Sozansky's activities in Small Fortress culminated in 1980 with a ''private symposium'', which was attended by Zdeněk Beran, Ivan Bukovský, Oldřich Kulhánek, Lubomír Janečka, Petr Kovář and Ivan Dolejšek. The works created inside the Small Fortress were exhibited directly in the prison cells and in the corridor of the solitary confinement cells in the IV. yard. The cultural inspector of the town tried to prevent the exhibition by summoning police with dogs, by denouncing the exhibition to Ministry of Culture and to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and informing the StB, which began investigating the participants. The exhibition was banned shortly afterwards when officials realized that it was not just a commemoration of the Holocaust, but an obvious reminder of the fascist practices of the new totalitarianism. In 1979–1980, he created a series of drawings, ''Project IV. Yard'', which confront the silhouettes of human figures with the cold geometry of space. A partial reinstallation of the sculptures, which had been left in a former potato warehouse during the normalization, took place in 1991. For the reconstruction, Sozanský invited young actors, who performed during the opening and later repeated staging completely naked just for photo documentation.

From 1980 onwards, his drawing series ''Days and Years of My Mother'' was created, where he set the portraits in an impersonal architecture suggested only by lines. The series was created continuously and ended with his mother's death in 1989. From 1981 he worked in Most on the series ''The Trial'' and ''Anatomy of an Industrial Landscape'' and in 1982 he created drawings and installations on the theme of ''Escape'' together with Jiří Novák. Architect Jiří Borl, who draw plans and perspectives, was a co-author of the resulting large-scale drawings. In the early 1980s, Sozanský participated in the exhibition ''Malostranské dvorky (Small Town yards)'' (1981) and took part in several generational exhibitions in regional or unofficial galleries (Karlovy Vary, Hodonín, Písek, Liberec), which broke the existing ideological monopoly of the official ''Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists''. At that time, he used photography, painting and metal cages, which delimited the space for the figure (''Sculptures and Objects'', 1980–1984, ''Family Portrait'', 1982–1985). Sozansky's cages with figures, which are a combination of assemblage and plaster limbs, most of all resemble variants of the torture instrument from Kafka's short story ''In the Penal Colony''.

Jiří Sozanský, Proces (Most 1981) I.jpg, ''The Trial'' (Most 1981)
Jiří Sozanský, Proces (Most 1981) IV.jpg, ''The Trial'' (Most 1981)
Jiří Sozanský, Proces (Most 1981) V.jpg, ''The Trial'' (Most 1981)
Jiří Sozanský, Únik (Most 1982) II.jpg, ''Escape'' (Most 1982)
Jiří Sozanský, Únik (Most 1982) I.jpg, ''Escape'' (Most 1982)
Jiří Sozanský, Hornická šatna (1982-1983) II.jpg, ''Miners' changing room'' (1982–1983)
Jiří Sozanský, akce Přežít (1984).jpg, ''action Survive'' (1984)
Jiří Sozanský, Obětování (performance 1992) I.jpg, ''Sacrifice'' (performance 1992)
Jiří Sozanský, Obětování (performance 1992) II.jpg, ''Sacrifice'' (performance 1992)
Jiří Sozanský, Obětování (Barok a dnešek, 1992) III.jpg, ''Sacrifice'' (exhibition ''Baroque and today'', 1992)

At the turn of 1983–1984, reading a samizdat edition of Orwell´s novel 1984, inspired him to start a project in the setting of the interior of the burnt-out Trade Fair Palace. Thanks to arch. Miroslav Masák and the company SIAL, which reconstructed the building for the purposes of the National Gallery, he was able to realize his plans there for several months. The project included live performances, photographs, paintings, reinforcing iron cages and sculptural objects (the events ''Survive'', ''There and Back'', ''Massacre'', ''Human Couple''). Thanks to the collaboration of Evald Schorm, the cameraman Jaroslav Kučera and editor Jiří Brožek, as well as several Laterna magika actors participated in the film. Everything took place under conspirative conditions, and Sozanský eventually stopped the entire project so as not to endanger the others involved. The results of the art project were exhibited as late as 2014 under the title ''1984 - The Year of Orwell'' at the Trade Fair Palace.

House No. 50

In 1987, "House No. 50" was a continuation of the previous projects. In an abandoned Vysočany house slated for demolition, Sozanský created a large-scale environment with life-size photographs and paintings of human nudes in dramatic situations and embedded metal and wooden structures. In collaboration with J. Borl, he created spatial installations: ''Individual Catering'', ''Family Psychotherapy'', ''Convalescents'', ''Bedroom'', ''Attributes of Love'', ''Mirror of Solitude'', ''Visitors'', ''Incident'', ''Big Laundry''. The distinctive pathos and expressive, almost baroque overflow created a suitable setting for the subsequent performance by the French actor Dominique Collignon-Maurin on the theme '' Man Job'', which is captured on video.

Jiří Sozanský, Dům č. 50, Incident (1987).jpg, ''House No. 50, Incident'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Dům č. 50, Ložnice (1987).jpg, ''House No. 50, Bedroom'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Dům č. 50, Návštěva (1987).jpg, ''House No. 50, Visit'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Dům č. 50, performance D.C. Maurina Člověk Job (1987) VI.jpg, ''House No. 50, performance of D. Collignon-Maurin, Man Job'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Dům č. 50, performance D.C. Maurina Člověk Job (1987) XI.jpg, ''House No. 50, performance of D. Collignon-Maurin, Man Job'' (1987)

1988–1990

In the late 1980s, Sozanský returned to painting with the cycles ''Battlefield'' (1988–1989) and ''The Fall'' (1989–1991), in which he combined large-scale oil painting with assemblage. The ''Battlefield'' series follows ''House No. 50'' and depicts naked human bodies that gradually disappear under broad strokes of black paint, evoking the merging of bodies with the earth. The ''Fall'' cycle has its antecedent in a sculpture that Sozanský placed in 1982 in the chancel of a church in Most that was slated for demolition. It does not refer to any specific event, but represents some inexplicable tragedy or fate. Sozanský uses both cycles to renew and evaluate his relationship to the Baroque.

In 1988, Sozanský exhibited his large-scale paintings of groups of naked human bodies in dramatic situations jointly with plaster objects by Hugo Demartini at the Lidový dům (People's House) in Vysočany. In the same year, he participated in the unofficial show of previously banned artists ''Forum 88'' in the Prague Marketplace (environment ''Closed'', Sozanský organized the event together with Theodor Pištěk). In 1988 he also exhibited in the National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and in 1989 at the Spring Salon in Paris at the Grand Palais.

Jiří Sozanský, Zápas (1981-1987).jpg, ''Wrestling'' (1981–1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Zápas (1981-1987) II.jpg, ''Wrestling'' (1981–1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Zápas (1981-1987) III.jpg, ''Wrestling'' (1981–1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Bojiště (1988-1989).jpg, ''Battlefield'' (1988–1989)
Jiří Sozanský, Zápas (1987) I.jpg, ''Wrestling'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Zápas (1987) II.jpg, ''Wrestling'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Dům č. 50, Člověk Job (1987) I.jpg, ''House No. 50, Man Job'' (1987)
Jiří Sozanský, Apokalypsa (1993), Kassel.jpg, ''Apokalypse'' (1993), Kassel
Jiří Sozanský, Hodina vlků (kresba 1994).jpg, ''Hour of the Wolves'' (drawing 1994)
Jiří Sozanský, Oběť (2023) II.jpg, ''Sacrifice'' (2023)

1990s

In 1990, Sozanský together with the prisoners created a memorial to the victims of totalitarianism in Valdice prison, consisting of concrete torsos of human figures with partially exposed iron construction and reinforced concrete blocks. The prisoners engraved it with the names of their fellow prisoners who had been tortured by the guards. Photodocumentation of the work, together with prisoners' testimonies, was published in a book. The statues installed in the prison's walking yard interfered with normal functioning and in 2007 had to be removed and taken to the ''Vojna Memorial'' in the former communist concentration camp and uranium mines near Příbram. Sozanský created a new bronze ''Memorial to Political Prisoners'' in front of Valdice prison at the request of the Ministries of Culture and Justice, which was unveiled in 2009. In 1992, he created another monumental memorial to the victims called ''Memento mori'' for the Litoměřice Crematorium in the former Nazi concentration camp and ''Richard Underground Factory and Mines''.

Jiří Sozanský, věznice Valdice (1990) IX.jpg, Jiří Sozanský, Valdice prison yard (1990)
Jiří Sozanský, věznice Valdice (1990) II.jpg, Jiří Sozanský, Valdice prison yard (1990)
Jiří Sozanský, věznice Valdice (1990) V.jpg, Jiří Sozanský, Valdice prison yard (1990)
Jiří Sozanský, věznice Valdice (1990) VI.jpg, Jiří Sozanský, Valdice prison yard (1990)
Jiří Sozanský, věznice Valdice (1990) I.jpg, Jiří Sozanský, Valdice prison yard (1990)

After returning from Sarajevo, he exhibited his photographic records, collages and drawings in New synagogue in Libeň, Prague. The exhibition ''City under Siege'' included a performance by the theatre group ''HAMADA''. During his trips to Sarajevo, the burnt down University Library, designed by the Czech architect Vítek, became a focal point for Sozanský. He held an exhibition of his paintings on the theme ''The Struggle of Angels'' at this site. The total area of the ''Forum populi'' canvases, assembled into a single unit, was 12 x 7 metres. The statics of the library walls were disturbed and the whole installation collapsed in January 1996. In 1996, Sozanský participated in the ''Tribute to Sarajevo'' with his installation in Grbavica (Sarajevo), a performance by a theatre group (''Attempted Resurrection'', September 1996) and the launching of burning straw bales on the bridge over the Miljacka river to symbolise the expulsion of the evil spirit of war The final exhibition ''Art in Extreme Situation'', which presented Sozansky's works on the Sarajevo mission, was held in 1977 at ''Le Clos des Arts'' in Brussels The city of Sarajevo itself, together with the testimony of refugees from the territories occupied by Serbian paramilitary forces, became the inspiration for a series of paintings on the theme of ''Apocalypse''.

Jiří Sozanský, Forum populi, Sarajevo 1995 (III).jpg, ''Forum populi, Sarajevo 1995''
Jiří Sozanský, Pocta Sarajevu 1996.jpg, ''Hommage to Sarajevo'' 1996
Jiří Sozanský, Pokus o zmrtýchvstání, Sarajevo 1996 (II).jpg, ''Attempted Resurrection'', Sarajevo 1996
Jiří Sozanský, Odplavení zla, Sarajevo 1996.jpg, ''The sweeping away of evil'', Sarajevo 1996
Jiří Sozanský, koláž, Brusel 1997 (II).jpg, ''Collage'', Brussels 1997

The previous paintings are loosely related to the graphic cycles ''Beasts'' (1999), ''Refugees'' (2000), ''Hunt'' (2000) and large-scale etchings of the series ''Stone and Bone'' (2001), inspired by the poetry of Jan Zahradníček. Sozansky's work with the performers was continuously documented with photographs, which served as the basis for repaints in many variations. In 1996, these works were adjusted into metal constructions and installed as ''Depository of Anxiety'' in cell No. 42 in Terezín Small Fortress.

2000–2010

Accidentally discovered samizdat edition of poem ''Znamení moci (Signs of Power)''In the poem, the author uses poetic means and deep allegories to portray the communist regime that seized power in Czechoslovakia and other countries of the world. He describes the collapse of human society and its moral values and the monstrosity of a regime that deceived the people and robbed them of their humanity. by Jan Zahradníček provided Sozanský with a new source of inspiration for works dealing with the spiritual legacy of prisoners of communist and Nazi concentration camps. Since 2000, he has used fragments of the texts as an equal part of his pictorial collages, drawings and paintings.

In 2003 Sozanský responded to the disastrous flood of Prague in 2002, which completely devastated part of the Karlín district, with an installation of large-scale paintings that combined Samuel Beckett texts ( Stories and Texts for Nothing) with photographs, painting and assemblage, on and around the Negrelli Viaduct (the ''Exodus'', ''Animation of Cruelty'', ''Battlefield'', ''Incident'', ''Struggle of Angels'', ''Apocalypse'', ''Flood'' series). The project included performances by the ensembles ''Teatr Novogo Fronta'', ''Boxart'', ''Palaestra'', etc., on Beckett's texts in the devastated interior of the Musical Theatre Karlín, scripted and set-designed by J. Sozansky.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 10th anniversary of the end of ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Sozanský exhibited a series ''From Dust and Ashes (2005)'' in Old Town Hall, which loosely followed the previous ''Meeting with Beckett'' and ''Homage to Jan Zahradníček - Stone and Bone''. The basis for the large-scale drawings, paintings and collages combined with texts were the records of prisoners from Auschwitz and Primo Levi and Viktor Frankl and part of the personal notes of the Nazi commander of Auschwitz Rudolf Höss published during the Nuremberg Trial

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