Artist:
George Frangulyan
Title:
Monument Joseph Brodsky
Year:
2011
Adress:
Novinsky Boulevard
www.georgy-frangulyan.ru:
Composition of the monument consists of 13 figures depicted schematically. Brodsky himself stands alone; he is the only one with relief image of the body and face.
Figures are mounted on a tiered podium, combining them into a solid node. This two-step float is a symbol of the two stages of poet’s life.
The sculpture is located in a park, intruding deep into the yard, which creates an image of a theatrical mise en scene, perceived even when you walk around the composition. The street, people passing by become active participants of the spatial composition.
'I laid a lot of options to read the sculpture', says George Frangulyan. 'Schematically speaking, the composition consists of silhouettes. Flat shapes arranged in the space get their volume when combined with each other. We all are flying through our lives. The bottom line is that someone succeeds to express himself, to get ‘stamped’, to have his own picture, while others don’t. But everyone is given a chance. That’s why you can enter the site.
When you stand among these figures, in this space, you become a monument of time. And your task is to make a choice: where you’d go, how you'd be able to express yourself in this complex world. These people, silhouettes, are no only Brodsky’s environment, but ours. We do not exist alone. They have no faces, but this is no insult. This is an opportunity to imagine ourselves among them.'
www.um.mos.ru:
Sculptor called this monument his"personal gift to the city".
Monument to the poet Joseph Brodsky was opened May 31, 2011 at New Arbat Street. This is the work of sculptor George Frangulyan and architect Sergey Skuratov. It is noteworthy that the sculptor worked on the monument 7 years and used his own funds, -"Brodsky Monument is my personal gift to the city. Everything: the pedestal, and granite, and sculpture, " - said the sculptor.
This is an interesting idea of the project - a monument stands in front of the American Embassy, and the bulk of the Brodsky’s image facing the embassy. It is known that Brodsky was persecuted by the Soviet government and the was forced to leave the USSR on June 4, 1972 and choose emigration.
Brodsky first spent some time in Europe, and then flew to the United States, where he lived and worked successfully until his death. That is, in such a picture you can see a hint to the fact that the majority of his fellow compatriots did not recognize accept the poet, while in other countries it has received recognition, popularity and reverence for his talent.
Group of people around the Brodsky silhouette are flat and featureless. Sculptor expresses his pain over the fate of the poet's contemporaries-countrymen were blind and cruel in their massacre of Brodsky.
www.poetryfoundation.org:
It was the city’s idea that it should face the embassy. 'We looked for a place for a long time,' said Alexander Kuzmin, Moscow chief architect, in 2007. 'We looked to see where the relatives of the poet lived. Then we asked ourselves a question: What most of all links Brodsky and Moscow? And we understood – the American embassy, from there he left the U.S.S.R.'
Brodsky actually left for Vienna, initially, but he did become an American citizen and poet laureate in 1991.
Reaction to the statue has been mixed with positive comments in the media, but grumbling by locals, still allergic to the gigantism of the Luzhkov era. 'In St. Pete, in Brighton Beach or in Venice is more apt than in Moscow,' wrote one user on LiveJournal, with another adding, 'If I was his relative, I would sue.'
Others asked why it was in Moscow. 'There was some questions [about that] but [French writer Honore de] Balzac was not born in Paris and there is a statue of him there,' said Frangulyan.
Composition of the monument consists of 13 figures depicted schematically. Brodsky himself stands alone; he is the only one with relief image of the body and face.
Figures are mounted on a tiered podium, combining them into a solid node. This two-step float is a symbol of the two stages of poet’s life.
The sculpture is located in a park, intruding deep into the yard, which creates an image of a theatrical mise en scene, perceived even when you walk around the composition. The street, people passing by become active participants of the spatial composition.
'I laid a lot of options to read the sculpture', says George Frangulyan. 'Schematically speaking, the composition consists of silhouettes. Flat shapes arranged in the space get their volume when combined with each other. We all are flying through our lives. The bottom line is that someone succeeds to express himself, to get ‘stamped’, to have his own picture, while others don’t. But everyone is given a chance. That’s why you can enter the site.
When you stand among these figures, in this space, you become a monument of time. And your task is to make a choice: where you’d go, how you'd be able to express yourself in this complex world. These people, silhouettes, are no only Brodsky’s environment, but ours. We do not exist alone. They have no faces, but this is no insult. This is an opportunity to imagine ourselves among them.'
www.um.mos.ru:
Sculptor called this monument his"personal gift to the city".
Monument to the poet Joseph Brodsky was opened May 31, 2011 at New Arbat Street. This is the work of sculptor George Frangulyan and architect Sergey Skuratov. It is noteworthy that the sculptor worked on the monument 7 years and used his own funds, -"Brodsky Monument is my personal gift to the city. Everything: the pedestal, and granite, and sculpture, " - said the sculptor.
This is an interesting idea of the project - a monument stands in front of the American Embassy, and the bulk of the Brodsky’s image facing the embassy. It is known that Brodsky was persecuted by the Soviet government and the was forced to leave the USSR on June 4, 1972 and choose emigration.
Brodsky first spent some time in Europe, and then flew to the United States, where he lived and worked successfully until his death. That is, in such a picture you can see a hint to the fact that the majority of his fellow compatriots did not recognize accept the poet, while in other countries it has received recognition, popularity and reverence for his talent.
Group of people around the Brodsky silhouette are flat and featureless. Sculptor expresses his pain over the fate of the poet's contemporaries-countrymen were blind and cruel in their massacre of Brodsky.
www.poetryfoundation.org:
It was the city’s idea that it should face the embassy. 'We looked for a place for a long time,' said Alexander Kuzmin, Moscow chief architect, in 2007. 'We looked to see where the relatives of the poet lived. Then we asked ourselves a question: What most of all links Brodsky and Moscow? And we understood – the American embassy, from there he left the U.S.S.R.'
Brodsky actually left for Vienna, initially, but he did become an American citizen and poet laureate in 1991.
Reaction to the statue has been mixed with positive comments in the media, but grumbling by locals, still allergic to the gigantism of the Luzhkov era. 'In St. Pete, in Brighton Beach or in Venice is more apt than in Moscow,' wrote one user on LiveJournal, with another adding, 'If I was his relative, I would sue.'
Others asked why it was in Moscow. 'There was some questions [about that] but [French writer Honore de] Balzac was not born in Paris and there is a statue of him there,' said Frangulyan.