The Airship Gulliver At The DOX Centre For Contemporary Art

An airship has crash landed between 2 buildings in Prague!

Not a real, historical airship, but rather, an early 20th century inspired one called the Airship Gulliver, an ode to Jonathan Swift’s utopian classic, Gulliver’s Travels. The 42 metre long steel and wood airship structure opened at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in December 2016, “floating” above DOX’s two buildings and acting as a “parasitic” structure, in contrast with the existing architecture.

The zeppelin shaped structure is a permanent installation and serves as a space for reading, writing workshops and museum-organized talks. It’s a beautiful space, that is, if you’re not afraid of heights.

Although completely secured by cables, the Airship Gulliver has hundreds of slats, which let light in, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere. But at the same time, you can see the outside and are aware that you are suspended several stories up in the air.

You can also see through the metal stepladder going up to the Airship Gulliver, so don’t look down – because you can see almost all the way down to the ground. Just hold on to the handrail, going up and down!

I can admit that it took me a couple times to try to climb up all those steps. It was the same feeling that I got when I visited the Sky Deck at the Willis Tower. And eventually, I couraged up, putting on my big girl pants and just did it.

The inside of the Airship Gulliver is absolutely stunning. And did not rock or sway whenever someone entered or exited – which is great. Although I don’t know what it would be like in a windstorm.

Not sure what it feels like when the maximum capacity of 120 people is reached in the Airship Gulliver, but as one of the 4 people in there, it felt pretty peaceful and I got to imagine what it would’ve been like to cruise the skies at the dawn of the 20th century.

Gulliver:
A traveller to strange distant lands.
A wanderer of faraway seas and unexplored territories.
An adventurer who repeatedly embarks on voyages to the unknown.
An eternal stranger and an outsider both to the countries and people he visits and to his own.
An explorer whose travels to foreign lands allow him to see various aspects of human nature more clearly.
A messenger who, through the accounts of his sojourns among foreign nations, offers a mercilessly satirical and critical view of his own society and people, thus continuously pushing them to reflect upon the state of the world they live in and to contemplate their own human condition.