Fairy Empire
Motol Hospital, Prague
October 2022

Fairy Empire was an installation in the public space of Motol Hospital in Prague, realized during the final phase of the coronavirus pandemic. The project introduced representations of Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) into a highly sensitive public environment. It functioned as an experiment in perception: how would people respond to a plant that had been widely framed in the media as dangerous and invasive when it appeared within the context of contemporary art?

The response came quickly. During the opening, an elderly hospital employee approached the artist and demanded that the installation be removed immediately, clearly unsettled by the presence of the plant. A week later, following a complaint submitted to the authorities, the artist received an official letter from the Ministry of the Environment calling for the immediate removal of the work under the threat of a fine reaching three hundreds of thousands of euros.

The incident transformed the installation into an unexpected probe into public consciousness and the circulation of fear. It also revealed the extensive and highly detailed legislative system governing invasive species. What began as an artistic gesture in public space quickly expanded into a confrontation with environmental law, institutional authority, and the powerful narratives that shape how certain forms of life are perceived and regulated.