Ours To Master

In 1934, Sutnar repeated his feat at the 3rd Workers’ Olympiad, collaborating again with the creator of the theme, Karel Loersch, and director Vojta Novák. The script on “liberated labor,” inspired by hopes for a socialist future, was influenced by the Great Depression of the 1930’s. The design is striking — darkly dressed masses of “workers,” masses of “engineers” in white and an iron army of robots reel around the key symbol of mechanized industry: a huge press. When economic depression causes workers to lose their jobs, they turn to the machines attacking them as enemies. The capitalists flee from the factories and the press then addresses the rebelling masses, telling them in a human voice that it is a laborer, just like them. A new era opens, with machines and people joined in labor for the good of the whole society.

Ladislav Sutnar, Design in Action