variations

Igor Mitoraj

Memento Park

“One Sentence on Tyranny – Statue Park”. The way Hungary treated this sensitive topic is to be considered exemplary even in international terms. The Statue Park utilises politically neutral means of art to emphasise the dignity of democracy and the responsibility of historical thinking."Budapest, Hungary, August 2014

illustrations for the Opera Tosca

igor mitoraj at canary wharf, london, england

Testa Addormentata, Igor Mitoraj 1993. Canary Wharf, London, UK.

a poster

this is a poster intended to be us

…un bell di di maggio

Come un bel di di maggio che con bacio di vento 
e carezza di raggio si spegne in firmamento.
Col bacio io d’una rima carezza di poesia
salgo l’estrema cima dell’esistenza mia.

La sfera che camina per ogni umana sorte 
ecco già mi avvicina all’ora della morte.
E forse pria che l’ultima mia strofe sia finita
m’annunciera il carnefice la fine della vita.

Sia! Strofe, ultima Dea! Ancor dona al tuo poeta
la sfolgorante i dea, la fiamma consueta.
Io, a te, mentre tu viviada a me sgorghi del cuore,
darò per rima il gelido spiro d’un um che muore.

(Andrea Chérnier, Giordano)

returning imager

like a shadow which is not mine

fallowing me since longer

flashing in my thoughts

a blurry image from my youth

joyful sadness—an stigma

I've tried to leave it there in the past

but it returns, many times

and steady, many times…

gli angeli del ponte sant'angelo

il ponte sant'angelo è uno degli ponti più belli di Roma.

photo: © alexander fredés/2010

horse—an illustration

"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, 
when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, 
on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; 
and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, 
within view of the melancholy House of Usher. 


I know not how it was—but, with the first glimpse of the building, 
a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. ... "

The beginning of "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe
Illustration: Alexander Fredés/2012 

falling down

from the time when esthetics were not important,

when design were nothing to think of,

only the urgent needs of having shelter,

nothing human, only a shelter.

now, when times had passed by,

when people need not only a shelter

but, a place to live,

the house built in a hurry 

looses its motive

it has become ugly.

now, it's time to fell it down.

it becomes suddenly a ruin,

it looks as a picture taken in Berlin after the war

it looks like a fallen church, a monument that nobody wants.

the images against the dark sky

and strong brightness become like chapels

monuments of the pass.

ph; © alexander fredés/2012