2021

black and stainless steel

550 x 300 x 350 cm

Disconnected is one of the more notable works by Milan Cais, a Czech visual artist and musician whose practice has long included sculpture, installations, set design, drawing, painting and video.

The sculpture takes the form of an oversized electrical plug with a severed cord that, twisting and turning through space, has lost its original function. Cais has taken this ordinary technological accessory and, by removing from its everyday scale and context, has transformed into a monumental sculptural object. In fact, this change in scale give the work a strange sense of tension: something that we normally hold in our hands and barely pay attention to suddenly becomes an overwhelming object that dominates the space around it. Exhibited outdoors, the cable spreads across the lawn like a trace or a line in the landscape; indoors, on the other hand, we are more likely to notice its graphic qualities and spatial dynamism.

The work was made during the Covid lockdowns, when interrupted connections, isolation and technological dependence were a part of everyday life. But Cais’s ‘disconnection’ points to more than just the pandemic. The sculpture explore the more universal issue of the fragility of our contemporary civilisation founded on the constant flow of energy, data, communication and business operations. The severed cable is thus a metaphor for a potential failure – technical, social or personal. In fact, at its exhibition in České Budějovice the piece was presented in connection with the themes of digitalisation, energy dependence and the threat of blackouts. Later, it was included in an outdoor exhibition at the EPo1 gallery, where its significance was further amplified by the fact that the gallery is housed in a former power plant.

Installed in the Jesuit gardens at GASK, Disconnected can act as a powerful spatial accent and an easily understood introduction to contemporary art. Thanks to its immediately recognisable form (while at the same time not being merely a visual replica), it has the potential of speaking to a broad range of the public. Its meaning changes with each new venue: in the garden setting, this technical object is contrasted with the living landscape, the historical context of Kutná Hora and the open character of the public space. This contrast further amplifies the basic question asked by the piece: what happens when the mechanisms on which we are dependent are suddenly disrupted?

The sculpture’s planned installation in the GASK gardens from May 2026 to May 2028 builds on the gallery’s existing dialogue between its outdoor and indoor exhibitions. It also forms a natural connection with Milan Cais’s upcoming exhibition The Mistake As Opportunity, which will take place at GASK from September 2026 to February 2027. More than an isolated object in public space, Disconnected is thus a prelude to a broader presentation of the artist’s work. Prior to its installation at GASK, it will be briefly exhibited at the Metronome Prague festival, which will be held in June 2026 in Prague-Letňany.