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Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices

Coordinates: 55°44′45″N 37°37′10″E / 55.745935°N 37.619376°E / 55.745935; 37.619376
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Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices
ArtistMihail Chemiakin
Completion date2001 (unveiled)
TypeBronze sculpture
LocationMoscow, Russia
Coordinates55°44′45″N 37°37′10″E / 55.745935°N 37.619376°E / 55.745935; 37.619376

Children Are the Victims of Adult Vices is a group of bronze sculptures created by Russian artist Mihail Chemiakin. The sculptures are located in a park in Bolotnaya Square, Balchug, 2,000 feet (610 metres) south of the Moscow Kremlin behind the British Ambassador's residence.[1]

The monument consists of 15 sculptures. In the center of the composition are two blindfolded children. At their feet are two books: Russian Tales and Alexander Pushkin’s Fairy Tales, as well as a globe. The figures of children are surrounded by sculptures in the form of anthropomorphic monsters, personifying "adult" vices:

  • Drug addiction – depicted as a bald man with bent wings offering a syringe.
  • Prostitution – depicted as a woman with the head of a frog.
  • Theft – depicted as a man with a boar's head, carrying away a bag of money.
  • Alcoholism – depicted as Bacchus holding a goblet.
  • Ignorance – depicted as a donkey holding a rattle in his hands.
  • Pseudo-science is depicted as a caricature of Themis with a helmet over her eyes, a scroll with an alchemical tree, and a two-headed puppet.
  • Propaganda of violence is depicted as an arms dealer.
  • Sadism is depicted as a cassocked figure with a rhinoceros head.
  • An empty pillory represents the forgotten victims of repression.
  • The exploitation of child labor – depicted as a factory owner with the head of a bird.
  • Poverty – depicted as an old woman begging for alms.
  • War - a figure of a battle droid from Star Wars , with bent wings and a gas mask resembling a character from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, holding a bomb with the head of Mickey Mouse. The wings are the same as those of the Addiction figure, giving the composition symmetry.
  • Indifference stands in the center of the composition and is shown as a many-armed figure, both deaf and unseeing.[2]

The sculpture was commissioned by then-Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and sponsored by the state-owned oil company Rosneft. It was unveiled in 2001 amid some controversy. Some Muscovites worried that the graphic imagery would frighten children.[2][3] Chemiakin said that, "[The sculpture] ... was conceived and carried out by me as a symbol and a call to fight for the salvation of present and future generations."[4]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Yablokova, Oksana (29 June 2001). "Moscow to Raise Monument to People's Sins". The Moscow Times (via Highbeam Research). Archived from the original on 22 October 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Moscow divided over vices statue". BBC News. 6 July 2001. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
  3. ^ Shishova, Tatiana (5 December 2001). ""ПАМЯТНИК ПОРОКАМ" ШЕМЯКИНА С ТОЧКИ ЗРЕНИЯ ПСИХОЛОГА (an interview with doctor of psychological sciences Vasilevnoy Abramenkovoy)" (in Russian). www.pravoslavie.ru. Archived from the original on 25 December 2001. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
  4. ^ Darina, Nikonov. "The children – victims of adult vices" (in Russian). www.log-in.ru. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
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