In front of MG+
Budapest 1956, 2018
drawing in collaboration with Milenko Prvački
Sam Durant captures a pivotal moment in the escalation of the Cold War, as Hungarians rebelled against Soviet control in Budapest. In 1956 the Stalinist leader, Mátyás Rákosi was overthrown and Hungarian resistance moved into the streets. The massive statue of Joseph Stalin in central Budapest was pulled down in October, but by December the Red Army had crushed the rebellion and restored Hungary to a Soviet client state. It was not until 1989 that Hungary was able to extricate itself from the Soviet Bloc.
Harbin 1966, 2018
drawing in collaboration with Sam George
In 1966, China’s Communist leader Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Mao called on the nation’s youth to purge the “impure” elements of traditional Buddhist and Daoist society to revive the revolutionary spirit. Red Guards destroyed statues across the county, including this one in Harbin, while exiling, imprisoning and destroying the lives of millions of Chinese people declared “rightists” or “enemies of the people.” Intellectuals, artists, musicians, writers and cultural producers were especially targeted.
In front of + MSUM
Accra 1966, 2018
drawing in collaboration with Milenko Prvački
In 1957 under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from colonial power, as the wave of liberation movements successfully swept across the continent. Later, in 1965 the white ruling class of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) declared their freedom from Britain. Ghana criticized the UK for allowing the seizure of power by a white minority, with President Nkrumah calling for military intervention by Ghanaian forces. As Nkrumah pushed for offensive operations, he forced into retirement the army’s most senior officers. Historians argue that this led to the military-police coup that overthrew him on 24 February 1966. Nkrumah’s statue outside Parliament House was battered to the ground during the coup. Today, the damaged statue has risen again and stands in the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.
Caracas 2004, 2018
drawing in collaboration with Sam George
On Indigenous Resistance Day of 2004, the statue of Columbus, located in downtown Caracas atop a 30-foot pedestal, was torn down. Protesters used ropes to topple the 100-year-old monument and dragged the remains towards the Teresa Carreño Theatre – where indigenous celebrations were being held to commemorate the day – in an offer to bring Columbus to trial after 512 years. Together they hung the statue from a tree. For the native community, it was a powerful act of symbolic justice to remove the explorer’s effigy, which represented invasion, genocide, and colonialism. In 2015, Venezuela’s government erected a monument in place of the missing Columbus statue in central Caracas to honor Guaicaipuro, the Indigenous chief who led the resistance against Spanish colonialism 500 years ago.
+MSUM
Addis Ababa 1991, 2018
drawing in collaboration with Milenko Prvački
Mengistu Haile Mariam was the leader of Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991 and chairman of the military junta that governed the country until his overthrow. During that time, Mengistu pursued an autocratic politics that led to thousands of Ethiopians being killed. The statue of Vladimir Lenin in Addis Ababa was an important government monument representing Mengistu’s socialist influences. On 24 May 1991 – when Mengistu fled for refuge in Zimbabwe at the threat of rebel advance – the Lenin statue in Addis Ababa was pulled down. While still living in exile in Zimbabwe, Mengistu was tried and convicted between 1994 and 2006 for genocide.
All works © Sam Durant, courtesy of the artist and Blum & Poe, Los Angeles/New York/Tokyo and Library Street Collective, Detroit
All photos by Makenzie Goodman
All works graphite on paper
