Kiev has replaced the city’s Lenin statue with a giant blue hand
28 September 2018
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Katie Marie Davies
Officials in Kiev have unveiled the latest contemporary sculpture to sit in the former home of the capital’s recently demolished monument to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
Named “Middle Way”, the giant blue hand seeks to symbolise “friendship and cooperation”. It sits on the capital’s Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, where the city’s red granite monument to Lenin was toppled during the 2014 Maidan uprising.
The showstopping piece was created by Romanian artist Bogdan Rață, best known for his distorted sculptures of the human body. Brought to the city by the Romanian Embassy and the Nasui Collection & Gallery, as part of Kiev’s “Moving Monuments” programme, the sculpture has already divided locals, many of whom are celebrating that the installation is merely temporary.
The plinth was formly occupied by an installation by Mexican artist Jesus Carrillo, who created his piece, Nature Ritual from bunches of mint and rosemary.
