This scripted public lecture allowed the socialist realist sculptor Otakar Švec to present his work in front of a contemporary audience. Prague-based artist, he created several monuments and sculptures which were exhibited at representative exhibitions around the world. However, Švec is also the artist who was commissioned to realize the largest Stalin representation of all times. Erected just before the death of the “Father of the People”, the statue was blown to smithereens as part of the destalinization of the former USSR. Švec talks about this special moment in history when the artist played such a prominent part in the political sphere and questions the complete inexistence of socialist realist art in the current art system.
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Béranger
“The tombstone where (…)” is a work which conflate two notions of personification. The way materialist philosophers such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels chose to face death according to their convictions, and how their legacy has been diluted through time by the construction and deconstruction of memorial and official worshipping.