Edge. The Jan Palach Memorial in Všetaty

The book entitled Edge takes us through the memorial to Jan Palach in his birthplace in Všetaty. It is about the life of Jan Palach and Czech society in his era and the present, about architecture and its ability to speak, about our individual role in the shaping of the world. We make our way through the symbols contained in the architectonic and aesthetic layer of the house, as well as through the information concentrated in the museum’s historical exhibition. The form of the memorial is a symbol of the situation in which the life of a country, family, person is struck from outside by the edge of evil, and the challenge it bears. It stresses the significance of the act as embodied through the registering of history’s call by the individual, and thus elevates to a universal level the validity of Palach’s personal sacrifice for the present. And it urges us to listen to the challenges of today and our personal reactions to them.