Bulgarian Sofia Municipality to Discuss Controversial Soviet Monument's Future

Society | June 29, 2011, Wednesday // 10:19|  views

Sofia's Soviet Army monument was painted by an unknown street artist to represent a set of US pop culture characters. Photo by BGNES

The municipal council of Bulgaria's capital Sofia has scheduled an emergency sitting Wednesday to discuss the future of the Soviet Army monument in its downtown, which suffered a controversial makeover recently.

The emergency sitting is to take place 10 days after an unknown artist stirred the spirits in the Balkan country and caught the attention of the top global media, painting the Soviet Army Monument's soldier figures to ironically represent a set of US pop culture characters.

The unknown street artist painted the bronze figures of Soviet soldiers in downtown Sofia, turning them into various US superhero and other pop culture characters – including The Joker, Wolverine, Santa, Superman, Ronald McDonald, Captain America, Robin, and Wonder Woman.

The Soviet flag waved by the soldiers was painted to become a US flag, while a big inscription added by the artist below the soldier statues said, "Rolling with the time".

The emergency overnight cleaning of the monument, organized not by the municipality, but the little known forum "Bulgaria-Russia", chaired by Svetlana Sharenkova, triggered a wave of angry comments on the Internet.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, the Sofia Poetics organization (which organizes the eponymous early poetry festival in the Bulgarian capital) and the "Transformers" art movement scheduled a public discussion regarding the monument's future, also on Wednesday.

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Tags: Bulgaria, sofia, monument, Soviet Army Monument, street artist, Soviet

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