It's the holiday season and we're taking some breaks as well, so this one escaped our immediate attention, but better late than never: since the end of June, Bulgaria has its own Banksy - an anonymous prankster who overnight transformed the Red Army monument in the center of Sofia into a jolly crew of Superman, the Joker, Robin, Santa Claus and Ronald McDonald. The spray-painted legend above stated: “In step with the times”.
The monument commemorates the Soviet “liberation” of Bulgaria’s capital city in 1944, which opened the way for the communist regime that was to rule for almost 50 years. During these years, the monument served as a place of pilgrimage and worship, but since the fall of the iron curtain some pressure groups have been lobbying for its removal.
We can't but think of a similar genius action from 10 years ago: that one of Czech artist David Cerny, who in 1991 painted the Red Army tank monument in Prague in pink (the tank was later repainted back to green by the army and then once more to pink by the members of the Czech parliament - all in a period of 2 weeks).
Also the Bulgarian monument was transformed back into its original state in couple of days (the Russian foreign ministry urging Sofia to expose and punish the hooligans behind the vandalism and to stop the desecration of the memory of Soviet soldiers who fell in the name of freeing Bulgaria and Europe from Nazism), but not before it hit the news all over the world. молодец!
Image above by Soho 42, more in his Sofia Flickr set (btw, definitely check his other pics too, some great stuff there!)
(Thnx for tip Jeremy!)