Famous Russian sculptor will design a new park in the Serbian capital
Belgrade authorities invited Russian sculptor Alexander Rukovishnikov to design a new park for the Serbian capital.
Belgrade Mayor Goran Vesic stated this in an interview with the Federal News Agency, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I suggested that he design this park so that young Russian and Serbian architects and sculptors would work with him, so that they could learn from you how it’s done. This will be an important experience for them, because then they will be able to do something on their own, and for us it is good if young Russian and Serbian sculptors work with such a famous colleague. So in this sense we are very pleased,” Vesic said.
On January 28, the opening ceremony of the monument to the founder of Serbian statehood, Stefan Nemanja, created by Rukavishnikov, took place on Sava Square in Belshrad.
“Alexander Rukavishnikov, my personal friend and friend of the President of the Republic, received this order through an international tender. Nobody said: “We want Alexander Rukavishnikov to create this monument,” although we had the right to do so, since he is truly a world-class sculptor, and we were honored by his work in Belgrade. But Rukavishnikov actually won an international tender, in which leading sculptors from China, Russia, Slovenia, and Italy participated. I am happy that he had the opportunity to work in Belgrade, since the hallmark of big cities is to give the opportunity to the great names of world culture and architecture to work in them,” Vesic said.
The installation of the monument to Stefan Nemanja caused sharp criticism from the few representatives of the pro-Western Serbian opposition.
“This is partly a manifestation of Russophobia: the question was asked: “Why is a Russian artist working on the monument?” Why don’t those people who don’t want the Russian sculptor, who won an international competition, to erect a monument in Belgrade to think about how many buildings in the capital the Russians built? What kind of approach is this when you are not talking about the value of a work of art, but about whether the sculptor was Russian, German, Serbian or, I don’t know, Indian. This is some kind of incredible thing, in fact, this is partial racism, which, unfortunately, is part of everyday life in Serbia, we also have such people,” Vesic said.
Rukavishnikov is a regular participant in national and international art exhibitions. Personal exhibitions were held at the Central House of Artists and in the halls of the Russian Academy of Arts in Moscow, at the Nassau Museum of Contemporary Art (USA), at the Dielemann Gallery (Belgium) and in other museums and exhibition halls around the world.
Rukavishnikov’s works are kept in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, the Ludwig Museum, Siemens, Hermes, John Wilson, and numerous private and corporate collections.
In 2014, Rukavshnikov publicly supported the reunification of Crimea with Russia.
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