The talk about the several-meter-high bronze sculpture of Andrejs Upīts in front of the Riga Congress House came up a year and a half ago when a meeting of the Riga Monuments Council discussed the dismantling of many monuments.
On the one hand, Andrejs Upīts was a beloved writer, but on the other, he was an active representative of the Soviet authorities.
Because of his two different natures, the sculptor Ivars Drulle, a member of the Riga City Council, had the idea to saw the more than 40-year-old monument in half. His idea was supported by the City Council this week after heated discussions.
Opinions on this are very divided. On Thursday, October 17, art critic Vilnis Vējš said on Latvian Radio's "Culture Rondo" program that the current situation is crazy. Although it is known that the monument will not stay in its current place because the Congress House is being rebuilt as the Riga Philharmonic, Vējš believes that the dismantling of the monument should take a pause and let things cool down.
The sculptor and professor at the Art Academy of Latvia, Gļebs Panteļejevs, sharply criticized Drulle's idea.
"I read the idea, but for me, aggressive sawing in half immediately connotes medieval methods. It was especially common with homosexuals, because in the Middle Ages homosexuals, I saw the instruments of torture myself in the museum, were hanged by the legs and sawed in half from the crotch to the forehead with a saw. So it's the same sawing," said Panteļejevs.
His colleague, Professor Andris Teikmanis, on the social platform Facebook, said that there could be another work of art that would reflect the duality of Andrejs Upīts. He pointed out that the existing monument was made by sculptor Alberts Terpilovskis and is protected by the Copyright Law. Of course, perhaps the sculptor's heirs to the copyright agree to such a transformation, and then it becomes legally possible, Teikmanis reasoned.
MP Ivars Drulle pointed out that his idea was supported by the heir to the monument's copyright, former Culture Minister Kārina Pētersone, who admitted to Latvian Radio that the decision was not easy.
"My grandfather, they [grandfather and Upīts] were very close friends, their political views were very different, but my grandfather helped Andrejs Upīts a lot during his life, saved him from prison, but my grandfather Jūlijs Pētersons was imprisoned in 1944. When my grandmother went to Andrejs Upītis, who was an influential person at that time, she was not heard," said Pētersone.
"So I also have my own, well, maybe personal pain. But when I passed by this monument, it reminded me of my family history, of Latvian history, so it seemed necessary, necessary to have him there. But also the idea of Ivars Drulle, this divided life, well, it makes a lot of sense," said Pētersone.
One of the ideas where the halved monument could be placed is Grīziņkalns Park. It could be moved to a new location within six months, Drulle suggested.
