BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Kitsch or an extraordinary work of art? It depends on who you ask.
The president of Serbia attended the inauguration on Wednesday night of a grand monument to a medieval monk and a historic ruler who has been the subject of fire by critics who call him oversized and kitsch.
President Aleksandar Vucic’s allies say the 70-meter-tall (75-foot-tall) bronze sculpture of the legendary founder of the Serbian state, Stefan Nemanja, stands on a golden egg-shaped pedestal in the center of Belgrade will be a new milestone in the Serbian capital.
Opponents think the monument is a megalomaniacal and most expensive example of Vucic’s populist and autocratic rule that should be removed.
Vucic told a crowd of thousands of his supporters, who maintained no social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, that the “beautiful” statue represents a “masterpiece of art” that is a symbol of the state and the unity of Serbia.
He said all those who “dream of eliminating it” will not succeed because it represents “the anchor of the entire Serbian nation.”
Social media commentators have called the sculpture “Saruman on a Kinder Egg” and critics said the sculpture made and designed in Russia is incompatible with the traditional Serbian architectural style and instead resembles to large monuments from the Soviet era.
An independent Society of Serbian Art Preservers said the monument is an “ideological product of despotism” that has nothing to do with 21st century Serbia and Belgrade. Art historian Aida Corovic said it is not a monument to Stefan Nemanja, but to Vucic’s “arrogance”.
Belgrade Deputy Mayor Goran Vesic dismissed criticism and said the dilapidated part of the city “is becoming one of the most beautiful places in the capital” and a new center. from the city.
The monument was placed in a renovated square in front of the former Belgrade railway station. It is part of the Belgrade Waterfront project funded by a UAE company that includes Dubai-style shopping malls and high-rise buildings.
Critics have often compared the monument’s building to a renewed discussion of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, in the early 2000s, which included dozens of monuments and sculptures that earned it the nickname “the kitsch capital of the Balkans.”
Both projects became synonymous with secret and reckless spending. The price paid to the Russian sculptor for the monument has been declared a state secret, but independent estimates range around 9 million euros ($ 11 million).