Rainbow-coloured Black Lives Matter statue inaugurated in Budapest
A one-metre-tall rainbow-coloured Black Lives Matter statue has been erected in Ferenc Square in Budapest’s 9th District. A tender was announced last August to have independent public works on the city streets again. A professional jury selected six works from the submitted entries, out of which four were exhibited today.
Needless to say, the project sparked serious anger in recent months. Some threatened to overthrow it, while others (such as the Our Homeland Movement) claim that it is an “anti-European, anti-white, anti-heterosexual, and anti-Christian symbol”.
According to the plans, the rainbow-coloured statue will be exhibited in Ferenc Square until April 14. It is one metre high and was created by Péter Szalay using 3D printing technology. The sculpture paraphrases the New York Statue of Liberty in a kneeling pose with a raised fist, referring to American footballer Colin Kaepernick’s gesture, which became a symbol of the anti-racist movement.
Photo: www.facebook.com/Robert Carrithers
The professional jury evaluated the work of Péter Szalay as follows: “It is a paraphrase of a public memorial sculpture that surfaces current social and political issues: Black Lives Matter and prejudices about LGBTQ. The kneeling gesture of the sculpture also refers to the sculptural decision-making movements in the public space, so it also reflects the current situation of the work of art.
According to Telex, the idea came from the deputy mayor of the district because she wanted to put an end to the practice of making sculptures and other public works in Hungary only on political orders.
Krisztina Baranyi, the mayor of Ferencváros, previously told Euronews that she thinks it is important to set up the installation in Budapest because the BLM goals against racism and police brutality are as relevant in Hungary as anywhere else. As an example, she mentioned the Orbán government’s “relentless campaign” against migrants and refugees, as well as the systematic discrimination against the Roma in Hungary.
Photo: www.facebook.com/Orbán Balázs
The Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gergely Gulyás, said in December that the Black Lives Matter in the United States is essentially a racist movement that does not recognise equality, which should be a normal human right by 20th century standards. Therefore, the racist is not the person who opposes the erection of such a statue but the one who erects the statue, Gulyás said.
UPDATE
The statue was only able to stand undisturbed for a few hours due to far-right protesters. According to Azonnali, protesters from Legion Hungary and Our Homeland simply boarded up the rainbow-coloured statue, so it could not even be seen.
UPDATE 2
Telex writes the statue was knocked down around half past eight in the morning, while the police were there in the square anyway because they were out on the scene all night. According to reports, the perpetrators did not want to run away from the police. The statue has been surrounded by police tapes.
Read alsoA Black Lives Matter Statue to be erected in Budapest
Source: www.telex.hu
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16 Comments
Excellent initiative and very powerful message Budapest is sending to the world: barbarians no pasaran!
Disgraceful!. At least it is just as ugly as the racist, terrorist organization it represents.
Completely inappropriate! What does BLM have to do with Budapest or Hungary, for that matter? Nothing. This is an exclusively American issue.
To be fair, why don’t you cover other equally relevant organizations trying to better their societies?
Isn’t Hungary lucky … such a “honor” … from a subversive violent group of thugs.
Only the insecure would object to the display of such statue.
No Lou, the problem (and you probably don’t know this) is that during communism, people were forced out of their houses to raise their fist to show their “support” to the “leaders”. The fist – representing the worker against the establishment was a way to indoctrinate and force people to a forced ideology. People who didn’t come out of their homes, raise their fist or wave with the flags were taken to questioning and tortured. It is a symbol of oppression that unfortunately the younger generation has no clue about (including you it soundly seems). It is deeply saddening to see how people jump on fads and not question the origin and how it suppressed hundreds of millions of people. The ideology itself killed more people than any other in history and that fist served as a symbol of oppression instead of uprising. Saying that it has a different meaning really, does very little to the victims as if you can’t make the same claim with the Hindu swastika due to it being a charged symbol (and rightfully so) in our western culture despite it having a completely different meaning in for eg India. So no, that fist is not about triggering insecurity in us who reject it, but it is a sad reminder of how little people care to know about the actualities of what really happened.
It’s a shame to see some of the Hungarians fell for the lies this terrorist organization represents. Good that it got knocked down, I hope it becomes a daily exercise routine for passers-by to knock down this dreadful symbol of leftist oppression. Freedom fighters fought so hard against this sh*t, bringing this demented symbol into Hungary is a spit on their faces.
this statue was already broken by extremists. products of their environment.
These BLM punks have promoted destruction, looting, massive chaos all through the united states… Do we really need a stattue that supports this criminal behavior?
Please don’t start this shit in Budapest
American here, good job Hungary!
American here, good job Hungary!
I can see why ppl would object to such a proactively gay statue. Bye bye statue. The Statue Of Liberty in NY is of course not Black nothing BLM about the toppled statue.
Anonymous, you are a troll with contradicting opinions on the same issue. Don’t post while drunk!
“a small statue that is a temporary exhibit and is not an organisation or a movement. It is a small statue, that’s all. Albeit one that juxtaposes ‘liberty’ with the American slave history. Only communists or neo-fascists would try to prevent freedom of artistic expression. If you object to it that much, don’t go to see it.”
“These BLM punks have promoted destruction, looting, massive chaos all through the united states… Do we really need a stattue that supports this criminal behavior?”
I can assure everyone that it got knocked down in a short time. We don’t want any from this marxist bullshit here, we had enough from it. 44 years of communism
So glad this symbol of wokeness was removed from sight.