In Lithuania - the first monument to M. Cervantes!
In Lithuania - the first monument to M. Cervantes!
The Obzor newspaper in Vilnius came out with the same headline. This newspaper is published in Russian in Lithuania. I am posting an article by the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Alexander Shahov, who reported on the Mažoji galerija in the early days of October.
"At the beginning of this week, a monument to Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, the world-famous Spanish writer, was inaugurated in Vilnius. The first in Lithuania!
This significant event in the field of culture was timed to the birthday of the author of the great Don Quixote.
Many residents of the Lithuanian capital, who consider themselves highly educated and culturally developed, may probably be surprised: how did they miss this fact!
No wonder! The opening of the monument in the Vilnius gallery “Mažoji galerija” was not reported in the news of the main television channels of Lithuania, the leading Lithuanian newspapers did not utter a word.
Most likely, they were embarrassed that the monument to the great Spaniard was made ... of plywood. Thick, three-centimeter, but still plywood.
But when you find out that the author of this unusual composition is the Vilnius artist and sculptor Sergey Evtuhov, who opened to us, as Obzor recently wrote, absolutely incredible pages from the life of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, possible questions disappear immediately. "
At the ceremony of presentation of the monument to M.Servantes S.Evtuhov mentioned two important points that greatly help to understand his work.
Sergey admitted that his favorite writers are Miguel Cervantes and Daniil Harms, and that the “parent” Don Quixote could not help but invest in the character of the hidalgo, in his attitude to the world, a considerable part of himself.
Perhaps the same can be said about the works of Sergey Evtuhov himself.
Here, say, an unusual solution to the monument to Cervantes: a flying horse and his horseman, standing firmly on the ground.
An impulse, a departure from everything ordinary and imposed, earthly? But the composition at the same time stands firmly on the ground with the feet of the same rider.
So S. Evtuhov, as if hovering above the earth on a horse of absurdity, is at the same time firmly standing on the ground. He simply suggests that we, following Harms’s example, not obey the stereotypes humbly imposed on us and invented by someone the rules of proper behavior, but create our own Universe, always be a creator, like an unbending Cervantes.
By the way, in the composition there is another curious symbol - the disproportionately small sword. S. Evtukhov explained its meaning, but each of us can have its own explanation. Why shouldn't we become creators, following the advice of the author of the first monument in Lithuania M. Servantes?
During the presentation of the plywood Cervantes, the author of the monument told the audience that books with the adventures of a cunning hidalgo, it turns out, are second only to the Bible in circulation. This alone makes us wonder: is it worth to consider Don Quixote simply, as they say now, a "fun"? However, we hope that only a small number of people who read the novel treat this way today. And those who have not yet met hidalgo and his faithful Sancho Pansa should obviously think about a more productive use of their free time.
Separately, it is worth emphasizing that in his opening remarks Sergey tried to name all those who helped him in realizing his next “Harms” idea. By the way, you should not, having trusted, as it were, the absolutely simple appearance of the composition, conclude that all the difficulty and time involved in the implementation of this project consisted exclusively in sawing out the “monument” with a jig saw.
Initially, an idea was born, and it was back in 2015. And for four years it crystallized in the author’s head. And then, after consulting with an expert in the field of woodworking, a “monument” began to be born. Or - a monument, without any quotation marks".
Alexander SHAHOV ,
"Obzor"
Links to articles in the Obzor newspaper
Sergey Evtuhov, author of the project "Yellow Road".
