At present, in the thickening and generalizing pre-apocalyptical atmosphere, a fine surface of asphalt roads and their rule over our landscape are still considered signs of progress. The section of the motorway D11, which will run across the Trutnov and Žacléř regions will add a part of the East Bohemain frontier district, a forgotten bracket between the Krkonoše National Park and the Protected Landscape Area of the Broumov region, as another bead to an illusory rosary connecting Paris with Moscow. It is no more controversial than the other eight motoways under construction in the Czech Republic. May the presented requiem for our landscape be read ad exemplum.
Highways and their operational facilities are in their optimized functionality perfect non-places as defined by Marc Augé: interfering local specificity, restraining originality is covered by calming interchangeability. The landscape, which still seems to breathe, is wounded and bears a permanent sound and visual scar caused by the supreme claw of supermodernity. And the human slaves of goods, suffering in their cabins of backache, diabetes and depression, stressed by deadlines and rules, are moving between coordinates according to the instructions of dispatchers – and yet they seem to be standing still in one place – Europe is merging into predictable uniformity. Carpets are rolled up, nothing stands in the way of sacred goods. Consumerism accelerates ad libitum. Ad infinitum. Ad finitum.
