SMALL MONUMENTS

The title “Small Monuments” contains two conceptual paradoxes that play a key role in the implementation of this project. The first one is related to the “from cause to effect” habit, i.e. to see the public sculpture projects first, created for a specific environment/ competition, judged for the engaged audience in an exhibition hall for public discussion, evaluation and review. In this project, however, I will do the opposite – I will shrink and compress the already realized public sculptures to such an extent as to fit them back into the exhibition hall, which in their new scale become “small monuments”. The reverse process of diminishing, which is close to the original proto-model of the already realized works, aims to find a new relationship with the re-scaled object, which is experiencing changes in the new space, as well as its viewer. The generated projection develops the life of the public sculpture, returning it as a tertiary reflection in the exhibition hall. The second paradox is in the obvious oxymoron of the title itself – the monument has been transformed into a model of itself, and the game between the author and the audience does not end there.

The implementation of the “Small Monuments” project in a gallery in the form of an exhibition is provocative and informative. The items represent conceptualized replicas of my public works exhibited in Seoul, South Korea (2015), Santiago de Chile, Chile (2016), Rishon LeZion, Israel (2018), Mezdra, Bulgaria (2020), Bad Salzungen, Germany (2016), Craiova, Romania (2017), Alanya, Turkey (2019), Beziers, France (2021), Kenzingen, Germany (2019), Wuhu, China (2022). The works are selected from a wider collection of public works that I have created over the last 10 years, so as to illustrate the variety of materials used to create them, such as: stone, wood, metal, etc. These pre-scaled “small monuments” are realized through a special 3D modeling software, and they are “printed” out using modern 3D printers. For years I have been using new technologies for design, as well as for the realization of my sculptural works. The study of these advanced technologies is a significant part of my dissertation at the National Academy of Arts.

The project is implemented under the “Creative Initiatives” Program of the “Culture” National Fund

 Rafail Georgiev – Rafo