美しい？　キッチュ？　中世のセルビア王子の巨大像に賛否両論

【ベオグラードＡＦＰ＝時事】セルビアの首都ベオグラードに登場した中世王子の巨大像が論争を巻き起こしている──歴史的な人物をたたえるものか、それとも街並みを乱す「巨大なキッチュ」なのか──と。（写真はセルビアの首都ベオグラードに登場したステファン・ネマニャ王子の巨大像）
　論争となっているのは、セルビア王国を建国した人物として知られる１２世紀のステファン・ネマニャ王子をモデルにつくられた銅像だ。明るい光で照らされた銅像の高さは２３メートルを超える。除幕式が２７日に行われた。
　王子の巨大像について、セルビアのアレクサンダル・ブチッチ大統領は、今まで見たこともない「最も美しいものだ」と称賛。数百人が参列した除幕式で「このモニュメントは大きい。なぜならわが（国の）歴史が大きいからだ。そして重い。わが（国の）歴史がしばしばそうであったからだ」と語った。
　だが、これとは反対の意見も多い。歴史家や芸術家、建築家らは、銅像があまりにもけばけばしいため、本来それが表すべき歴史が「矮小（わいしょう）化」されていると批判的だ。
　また、ソーシャルメディアでは、映画「ロード・オブ・ザ・リング」シリーズの登場人物「サルマン」が「チョコエッグの上に立っている」ようだと皮肉る書き込みも見られた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/01/29-16:23）

A gargantuan statue of a medieval Serbian prince unveiled in Belgrade on Wednesday has sparked a fierce debate: is it a beautiful tribute to a historical icon or monstrous kitsch spoiling a public square?
The brightly-lit bronze state of Prince Stefan Nemanja, a 12th-century prince considered the founder of the Serbian state, stands more than 23 metres (75 feet) tall in a riverside Belgrade neighbourhood.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has praised it as the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.
This monument is big, because our story is big. It's heavy because our history often was, Vucic said at the unveiling ceremony, which was attended by hundreds.
Yet many critics think quite the opposite, with historians, artists and architects slamming the monument as so gaudy that it trivialises the history it is meant to represent.
One prominent architect went as far as to describe it as an act of urbanistic terrorism.
It's monstrous, it's kitsch, and it taints the beautiful train station building, historian Dubravka Stojanovic told local newspaper Danas, referring to the nearby former railway hub, a relic of late 19th-century Serbian architecture, that is now dwarfed by the statue.
The monument depicts the sombre-faced prince holding a sword as he stands on an enormous cracked Byzantine helmet that is almost half the size of the monument.
On social media, the image was lampooned as resembling Saruman, a Lord of the Rings character, standing on a chocolate egg.
- Secret price -
Milja Mladenovic, an urbanism expert, argues that the size of the statue clashes with the spacial layout of the surrounding square, particularly the railway centre which was previously its focal point.
When viewed through the design of public space, it is very problematic to find (a statue of) that height in the square, she told AFP.
A Serbian conservation association unsuccessfully asked authorities to drop the monument, citing its discordance with the neighbourhood and calling for the money to be used for other badly-needed restorations.
The exact cost of its construction remains unknown.
City officials have said the price of the monument was declared confidential until 2023, a year after Belgrade's next municipal elections.
The work's creator, Russian artist Alexander Rukavishnikov, said he hoped Serbs would get used to the monument.
Trust me, it won't spoil the appearance of your beautiful Belgrade and I hope they will grow to love it in time, he told public broadcaster RTS.
Belgrade's deputy mayor Goran Vesi has also come to its defence.
There were different opinions on the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty... Good artwork always causes different opinions and criticism, and nobody notices the bad ones.