Marketa Pilatova: From book Stone to Protozoa:

When Friedensreich Hundertwasser built his ship Regentag, he didn’t need any houses anymore. He got his captain’s license and kept sailing until he died onboard. You think about him after buying your sailboat, Papillon. You imagine him, the eccentric, practical dreamer, standing at the bow, a bright-colored cap on his head, sailing to New Zealand or maybe Japan, planning to try out more and more colors and materials. He sailed courageously and rarely looked back. Sometimes he tried something out and then forgot it, or came back to it much later. He painted over most of his paintings once the exhibition was finished. He built houses, wine cellars, gas stations, incineration plants and ecological public toilets. He lived and invented for you, too, even though he didn’t know it.

You’ll place a stainless-steel statue of a butterfly-woman at the bow of your new sailboat, with gentle but strong wings adorned with colorful glass to reflect the sun, the stars and the beams of lighthouses. During sea storms, the wind will use them to play a song in honor of those who aren’t afraid, who keep inventing and doing things differently. The butterfly-woman will carry the ship’s soul – like the sailors of old, you believe that every ship has one. Phoenician ships carried horse statues to give them speed, the Vikings believed that dragon and snake heads would protect them from evil spirits and tempests, and for the galleons carrying Indian gold and silver from the New World, Baroque woodcarvers made huge female figures and statues of saints. They were statues representing the ships’ names, symbols of wealth, a kind of brand. Today, the soul of the ship usually isn’t placed at the bow anymore, and you feel it’s a pity. Because your ship does have a soul: the soul of a butterfly, papillon. During rain and sea storms, thousands of salty and freshwater drops will fall on its colorful wings. The butterfly-woman sculpture will protect you and your ship from evil spirits, fickle gods and ordinary bad luck.

At night, when the ship’s soul is fast asleep, the butterfly-woman can fly off on light wings, visiting new ideas, never-seen materials, unknown homes and sculptures. She will seek them out, sit on them and like a butterfly, suck the nectar of everything new, colorful, exciting, distant, imaginative. She will come back in the early hours of the morning, and quietly, so you wouldn’t notice, give her wings to you.