One of the best examples of contemporary funerary architecture is located near the entrance to the oldest part of the Olšany Cemeteries – Cemetery II. Set amidst grave monuments from the nineteenth century, this minimalist work among other things illustrates the fact that the entire burial grounds are actively being used to this day. Its simple style contrasts with, for instance, the neighboring lavish historicist chest tomb of the Prague builders Jan and Quido Bělský.
The monument dedicated to the young architect Jana Kazimour Hladíková was designed free of charge by leading Czech artist and head of the AP ateliér studio, Josef Pleskot (1952). It was made in cooperation with Kazimour Hladíková's husband, the architect Jan Kazimour.
Pleskot's main source of inspiration was a photo from the couple's wedding: the groom in black as a support for the bride in white. The grave monument thus consists of two separate blocks, one made of white marble and the other of black granite, which frame an old cross on the cemetery wall left over from earlier burials. The original design called for solid, massive stone blocks, but the same effect was achieved using high-quality stone veneers. The space between the two tombstones is designated for greenery as a symbol of new, continued life and perhaps also of the couple's temporary separation prior to their reunion in the afterlife. The design shows that, in contemporary art, stories need not be told literally but that there is always room for mystery and the imagination.
The young widower wished for the aforementioned cast iron cross with a view of the Baroque Church of St. Roch to be incorporated into the design (the original visualization does not include a fence, which today disrupts the view of the chapel – the oldest monument in the area, and also the site from which Olšany initially grew). In the words of Josef Pleskot, the cross's placement is "at the height of a child's eye, to whom one can explain that Christ is salvation."
In addition to his broad-ranging architectural practice, Josef Pleskot has designed several other funerary works since 2015, mainly for artists and acquaintances, including an unrealized tomb for the painter Adriena Šimotová in Prague-Krč (2015), a bronze slab for the family grave of the businessman Jan Světlík at the central cemetery in Slezská Ostrava (2016), a tombstone for the Červený family at the Hradec Králové cemetery in Pouchov (2016), under which singer Soňa Červená was later buried, and most recently a grave monument for the family of the artist Karel Malich at the municipal cemetery in Holice (2021).
