MINI-SCULPTURES BY MYKHAILO KOLODKO
2018
On 4-5 May 2018, presented in Uzhhorod were two new mini-sculptures – a bronze naturalist and pedagogue Istvan Laudon and the monument to the largest meteorite of Europe "Princess".
Mini-Laudon settled in Uzhhorod dendropark, and "Meteorite Princess" sculpture – in Petöfi Square.
The famous naturalist Istvan Laudon started a unique garden in Uzhhorod where he collected exotic plants from all over the world, returning from each of his trips. It was one of the most original exotic parks in Europe, numbering about one hundred species of trees and bushes. After the city construction during the Czechoslovak period, the 130-year-old garden of Laudon was only a small piece of land near the Uzhhorod city children's clinical hospital – a dendropark with a mini-sculpture of the eminent naturalist.
The sculpture itself is traditionally made of bronze. Mykhailo Kolodko admitted that he was working on it not for a long time – just for a month. "I heard about István Laudon long ago – this is a charismatic and intelligent person. Therefore, I managed to implement the idea quite easily. In the hands of the sculpture there are symbolically three leaves of the exotic plant from the park – they, by the way, were made by my wife," the sculptor said.
As to another mini-monument “Princess” meteorite, it is the largest meteorite found in Europe that blew up in the Transcarpathian Kniahynia village on 9 June 1866.
"The story of the meteorite is personally one of the most interesting in Transcarpathia," the author said. “According to the historical sources, the stone fell from the sky in the afternoon, so a lot of people saw it, including in Slovakia. One of the Slovak artists even created a picture. I was in the probable place of the meteorite downfall, studied the local stories, and now I decided to remind people of this story."
We should add that earlier it was presented two more mini sculptures of the Transcarpathian sculptor. In the tourist resort Yavirnyk, in Transcarpathia, there is a mini-sculpture “Tourist”. Another went to Poltava, where there is a bronze Cossack Aeneas – the main character of "Aeneid" by Ivan Kotliarevskyi. It should be noted that the bronze mini-tourist became the highest located mini-sculpture of Ukraine, and “Aeneas” – the first mini-monument of Poltava.
Text: Kseniia Shokina, Denys Fazekash
Photo: Nataliia Pavlyk and the Internet resources
© Art & Culture Foundation Brovdi Art
