Slovenia: artist explains unlikely Melania Trump statue
The unusual sculpture of the first American lady, born in Slovenia, erected in her native country by Brad Downey, an American artist, has received mixed reactions. That was the goal of the artist, who questions the public and private perception of the Trump family. A Slovenian daily met him.
The sculpture of the first American lady, roughly cut with a chainsaw, was officially unveiled on July 5 in the Slovenian countryside, on a bank of the Sava, not far from Sevnica, the hometown of Melania Trump. Based on an idea by Brad Downey, it was produced by a local artist, Ales Zupevc known as “Maxi”, “a native of the country, too, who was also born in the same hospital as Melania”, specifies the daily Dnevnik, from Ljubljana .
The sculpture, which features Melania Trump in the blue suit worn on her husband's inauguration day, is part of Brad Downey's exhibition in July in the Slovenian capital. This is where a video produced by the artist who has been living in Europe for several years is shown. It shows the local sculptor at work (see below).
“In most of the media, the emphasis is on the xenophobic narrative, the anti-immigration rhetoric [of Donald Trump],” Downey told Dnevnik. However, Melania is a foreigner and her mother tongue is not English. There does not appear to be a problem with immigrants in the Trump family. Melania thus embodies this contradiction between political discourse and reality, between public and private truth. ”
[To make the statue], I wanted a working class man like Melania's father, the American artist also explains of his Slovenian companion. Someone who is not an academic artist. And I wanted the job to be done with a saw. I also wanted the sculpture to be anchored to the ground. Because it seems poetic to me. ”
It remains to be seen if the artistic project will be understood. Nothing is less certain when you see the mocking comments posted by Internet users around the world. The monument with the effigy of Melania Trump is in any case become a new tourist attraction in her native region, as photos published by the Croatian Telegram show.
"This statue, although naïve, touches on established patterns of representation," says Jani Pirnat, the curator of the exhibition also cited by Dnevnik. It is likely that Melania will have the monument her Slovenian origins deserve in the future, but […] Brad Downey has started thinking. "
