Angry Slovenian Villagers Set Fire to a Creepy Wooden Statue of Donald Trump. (The Artist Insists It’s Really a ‘Statue of Liberty’)

Arsonists have torched a giant,
folk art-style sculpture that looks like Donald Trump. The
25-foot-tall wooden sculpture, called Statue of
Liberty, had recently been moved to a Slovenian village
after it had been threatened in its original home. The local mayor,
who had provide asylum for the work, has vowed to replace it in
stone as police hunt for the
culprits, who struck before dawn on Thursday, January 9.

The sculpture depicts a
blond-haired man with his right arm raised in the style
of Lady Liberty. But instead of a torch, the figure is holding up a
clenched fist.

The work, by the Slovenian
architect and artist Tomaž Schlegl, caused a stir last
August when it was first erected outside the village of Sela. He
wanted to turn the sleepy village into a tourist destination, as
well as to provoke discussions about populist political leaders who
claim to represent the will of the people.

The nutcracker-like kinetic
sculpture was capable of two expressions, intended to serve as a
commentary on the two faces of populist politicians. The
sculpture’s tight-lipped neutral face could give way to an angry
gaping mouth revealing pointed teeth.

Schlegl has been adamant since the sculpture was first unveiled
that the figure is not Donald Trump, but a statue of liberty,
although he says the US president makes for a good personification
“because he has shown that he can do and say whatever he wants and
he won’t be held accountable.”

Speaking to Artnet News after the incident, Schlegl explains
that he was not surprised by the attack. “The statue triggered violent emotional
reactions in people, which is in some sense the purpose of
provocative art,” he says, adding that he had initially envisioned
the project to end with the statue being burned in an artistic
performance anyway. “Of course, there is a difference when the
destruction of the artwork is a part of the author’s performance,
or when it is cultural barbarism. I am strongly against the
latter,” Schlegl says.

The artist credits the statue’s
resemblance to Trump for raising the public’s hackles so much. “His
outrages and actions are feared by the whole world,” Schlegl says.
“With his provocative image the statue sets a mirror to today’s
politics, which is full of blatant slogans and
populism.”

Because of the fiery tensions
provoked by populists like Trump, the artist says that many people
missed the message of his work. “They only saw Donald Trump in it,”
he says. “The arsonist also probably didn’t understand the meaning,
as the statue was, paradoxically, created and destroyed for the
same reason: for disagreeing with the ‘democratic arbitrariness’ of
the populist, who interprets democracy in his selfish
way.”

This is not the first time the
sculpture has evoked the ire of the public. An industrious group of
locals helped the artist-architect create the provocative
sculpture—but not everyone
was happy with the attraction. Some villagers in Sela were
overwhelmed by the international attention the work was garnering,
and others called it an eyesore and threatened to destroy it. One
angry local even tried to mow it down with a tractor.

In order to save it from
vandalism, the work was given asylum in December by the mayor of
another village called Moravče. The mayor, Milan Balažic, hoped
that it would boost tourism, perhaps drawing inspiration from
another popular folk art sculpture of the
First Lady Melania, which was installed near her hometown of
Sevnica.

Speaking at a press conference
after the blaze, Balažic condemned the destruction of the work.
“The author of the sculpture
has repeatedly pointed out that the Statue of Liberty
speaks of freedom and peace,” he said, according to the Slovenian
outlet MMC.
“Today’s attack by arsonists is a manifestation of Slovenian
political culture and intolerance towards artistic projects in our
society.”

Two days earlier, there had been
another attempted arson attack on the sculpture, and it is thought
that the same perpetrators came back to finish the
job. “In the
Middle Ages, witches burned, Nazis burned books, but today we have
come so far that some burn statues,” Balažic said.

The mayor will not be defeated,
however. He is reported to be planning a new stone statue to be
erected on the hilltop as a reminder for visitors to strive for
tolerance.

The post Angry Slovenian Villagers Set Fire to a Creepy
Wooden Statue of Donald Trump. (The Artist Insists It’s Really a
‘Statue of Liberty’) appeared first on artnet News.