Metronome Prague 2024: Michal Gabriel, Prusa Pro AFS and visitors’ “HEADS”
At the June music festival Metronome Prague 2024 anyone who visited Met Gallery, could become part of an artwork created on the spot, “HEADS” by the renowned Czech sculptor Professor Michal Gabriel. Relief portraits of volunteers from among the visitors were created in an automated print farm Prusa Pro AFS and gradually filled the entire wall of the installation.
HEADS – a joint project of Michal Gabriel, Metronome Festival, Marek Gregor and PrusaLab – eventually presented nearly ninety 3D-printed relief portraits of festival visitors, including prominent figures from various fields of social and cultural life, such as Ester Ledecká, Oto Klempíř, Michael Kocáb, Michal Horáček or Radek Špicar.
The 3D models were not created by scanning alone – Michal Gabriel and his son Martin Gabriel used the input data as a reference from which they digitally “sculpted” each relief portrait themselves.
Even before the first visitor arrived, the wall featured several portraits of historical and contemporary figures (Václav Havel, Jiří Fajt and František Skála), artistically stylised by reducing detail. Visitors could thus playfully discover which great figure their newly created portrait would end up next to.
Technology in art
The 3D printing itself was handled mainly by the automated print farm Prusa Pro AFS, as well as several Original Prusa XL and Original Prusa MK4printers. This not only demonstrated the technological capabilities of Prusa printers, but also showed how technology can serve art and creativity – above all the new art form of digital sculpture.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of our participation in Metronome Prague 2024 – our partners, the team and of course all the visitors. It was a great opportunity for us to show how modern technology can be integrated into art projects and how it can inspire the general public.
We look forward to further opportunities to showcase our innovations and collaborate on unique projects. Thank you for being part of this event!
