Today was the inauguration of the"Lion" in its former place, from where it was removed almost 40 years ago due to the building of the ensamble of the National Palace of Culture. It was very nice to see in the online newspapers that many people were there paying tribute to the dead soldiers in the recent Bulgarian history. Many of them have relatives that were killed during the wars in the XX c. and longed for a place where to remember them, but it is a pity that many others joined in this polemic fight in the last years because of nationalistic ideals and military pride. And even more striking are the actions of Sofia Municipality in this conflict, disregarding art and professionals and despite its verbal struggle for democracy, there was a lack of democratic approach in dealing it.
During several decades the statue of the Lion and the rest of the Soldiers´ Monument were preserved to be placed in a new position that will explain to the visitants the heroic actions of the dead soldiers and will reconfort the relatives in a serene atmosphere. After the demolition the monument 1300 years Bulgaria, the figure of the Lion came back temporarily to the place awaiting the architectural competition next year and then being positioned in relationship with the rest of pieces conserved from the Soldiers´ Monument. Now the Lion sits on a solid base on a small sandy hill, looking North, and trying to look bigger in respect to the surrounding buildings and trees. Many have already called it the Kitten, meanwhile neither the esthethics of the new sculpture nor the secret way of placing it have received general approval.
The number of supporters of re-building the Soldiers´Monument back on its original place instead of the chosen place quite close, has been growing rapidly in the last years mainly because of the rise of nationalistic ideals that fully approve the military actions till the Second World War aiming the recovery of certain territories that were lost. The active participation of the Deuty Mayor of Culture in the FB group of these supporters influenced them to be more radical when asking "eye-for-eye" in the art field - destroying the monument 1300 years Bulgaria to re-build the Soldiers´ Monument. Even many of the them express the idea that divides the society in a very simplistic way. If one likes the monument 1300 Bulgaria and want to keep it in a proper state, then one is a socialist/ communist/ left. But if one doesn´t want to be considered like this (very offensive in Bulgaria due to the long communist regime), one must support the bringing back of the old monument of the Soldiers and moreover, to its original place, destroying other monuments, especially those built in the 45 years of communist regime.
Although now the communist regime is over long ago, democratic is not the word that can best describe the action of Sofia Municipality in this conflict. As the monument 1300 Bulgaria has not been properly maintained for decades, even desregarding an offer of Ministry of Culture for funding the total cost of reparation, one can think that the monument´s bad state is the perfect excuse to throw it down and has the general impression that this action is to dignify the area for the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU. There was not even an attempt to show and deal transparently the question, despite the many letters of national and international art and architectural association of preserving the monument 1300 years Bulgaria as one of its kind in the world. No public dialogues were made, no deeper debates ocurred on the future of this important place in the centre of Sofia, that would have continued the talks that have already started long time ago. Hearing all the opinions roaming in the public area and having an unbiased opinion should have been a very good start for the Municipality to consider the future of this place.
But what really matters in this case? The democratic values related to transparency, to caring of the common, to not dividing the society in black and white, are still not very well understood and practiced in Bulgaria. These values should be adopted not only by the Municipality that struggles to be democratic (in opposition to the old communist way of dealing) but also by the common people that should express their wills and needs not only in elections but at any moment. All of us should have the capacities in dealing everyday problems in a respectful way in order to have the best for our society. Ohterwise, we will continie having Kittens in inappropriate places explaining us more about democracy than about the events they were made for.
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