1956 Monument, Budapest, Hungary

Architect	The i-ypszilon artgroup including Tamás Emdi-Kiss, Katalin György, Horváth Csaba, Tamás Papp
Date Built	2006
Location	Felvonulási tér
Description
The memorial to the 1956 Hungarian Uprising sits on the site of the statue of Stalin that was demolished by freedom fighters striving to regain Hungarian sovereignty.  Stalin was knocked off his plinth, leaving only his jack boots.  This monument was commissioned by the Hungarian Government to mark the event, but if their goal was to consign the uprising to history, then it failed.  The structure has been the focus of a lot of criticism from those who object to it on artistic grounds and others who see it as an attempt by the government to rewrite history, taking credit that belongs elsewhere. The monument features rusting columns that represent the people coming together in every increasing numbers banding together until they fuse into one powerful shining force that has broken its way through the road in front of it.  In an article published in Daily Telegraph on the 29th of July, 2006, David Rennie writes that, "The old opposition feel marginalised - doomed to penniless old age as they rail against the smooth-talking socialists who run Hungary today. Their particular hate figure is the prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, a former leader in the Communist Youth League who became a multi-millionaire in the 1990s, as state assets were privatised."  ... "They wanted a traditional heroic sculpture, depicting people. For them, the steel posts look like the gallows used to hang hundreds after the revolution, including the martyred prime minister, Imre Nagy, who was executed by the Russians in June 1957 after he withdrew Hungary from the Warsaw Pact and declared it neutral."

Close Window