RUSSIA: CONTROVERSIAL SCULPTURE ZURAB TSERETELI SAYS PUTIN'S SOULS INSPIRED HIM TO DO A BRONZE STUDY OF THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT

Record ID: 857001

  • Title: RUSSIA: CONTROVERSIAL SCULPTURE ZURAB TSERETELI SAYS PUTIN'S SOULS INSPIRED HIM TO DO A BRONZE STUDY OF THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT
  • Date: 28th April 2004
  • Summary: (L!2) MOSCOW, RUSSIA (RECENT - APRIL 24, 2004) REUTERS WIDE OF GEORGIAN SCULPTOR AND HEAD OF RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS ZURAB TSERETELI WALKING TOWARDS STATUE OF RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN CLOSE-UP OF PUTIN STATUE TSERETELI WORKING ON PUTIN STATUE SCU (SOUNDBITE)(Russian) ZURAB TSERETELI, GEORGIAN SCULPTOR AND HEAD OF RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS SAYING: "You know the first
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Entertainment,Quirky,Politics,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA8L017ZJ82AZCHF25P95Y9CCUD
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  • Story Text: Controversial sculptor Zurab Tsereteli says Putin's soul inspired him to do a bronze study of the Russian president.
    Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli [pron: SERE-telly) works on his latest unfinished creation: a statue of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
    Tsereteli is head of Russia's Academy of Arts and is the friend and favourite artist of Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. The Georgian sculptor's works are dotted across the Russian capital - they inspire amusement, bewilderment and horror, often simultaneously.
    In the grounds of his studio in Moscow, Tsereteli said his bronze statue of Putin was inspired by the Russian president's body and soul.
    "You know the first thing I felt was that he [Putin] has a healthy soul, in a healthy body, I felt his balanced attitude to everything, I felt such a wisdom, I felt him, everything is close to me like his style, his stance and his step, that is why I decided to create like this," said Tsereteli as he worked on the statue, which at double life size, depicts Putin in a judo outfit.
    The work was not commissioned by the Russian president, who has rejected a personality cult, given its historical associations with the Soviet era and the state-imposed hero worship of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
    Tsereteli's workshop in Moscow is packed with some of his works and ideas, some of which like his tear-drop tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks in the United States, remain at the ideas' stage.
    It's very unlikely that Tsereteli's Putin will be put up anywhere in Moscow, where after the collapse of the Soviet Union, many city centre monuments to political figures were either torn down or removed. And there has mixed reaction from Muscovites.
    "Oh no, I wouldn't like to see a monument to Putin especially if it is done by Zurab Tsereteli. I saw this monument on (a news report on) television; and it is twice the size of the president. I have negative feelings about it," said Marina Georgievskaya, a Moscow resident.
    Another Moscow resident Alexei Soleshin said a Putin statue erected in the city centre.
    "Perhaps this would be interesting to see a monument to Putin done by Zurab Tsereteli, because there are many monuments dedicated to old era political activists in Moscow but there are no modern monuments to contemporary figures and I think this would be very interesting," said Soleshin.
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