In the centre of the iron fences of the bridge, in front of a five-pointed star, there is a small female figurine with a raised hand. Details can barely be seen through numerous layers of paint, on some sections the figurine disappeared completely in the black glossy mass.
This work began with a small observation. The figurine turned out to be a miniature replica of the statue of Liberty*, sculpted by Nikolai Andreev. In 1919, it was placed at the head of the 26-metre obelisk of the Monument to the Soviet Constitution on Tverskaya square in Moscow. In 1941, the monument was demolished, only the head of Liberty survived.
Elizaveta Konovalova refers to the replica of the monument, preserved at the bas-reliefs of the Bolshoy Kamenny bridge, in Moscow. Due to regular paint renovations, the outlines of the figurine were distorted in a thickness of dripping layers, and the allegory of freedom itself seems to have inherited the deformations, as if adapting to the new political reality. By confronting the original allegory with its spontaneously transformed replica, the artist emphasises the semantic consequences of this plastic deformation.
The installation presents a form of reconstruction of the lost monument, based on archival documents and a preserved fragment of the sculpture, and offers a new perspective. The photograph reproduces the deformed replica in its original monumental scale, 1:1, according to the dimensions of the lost statue of Liberty, over 6 meters in height. On the reverse side, an iron cast of the same figurine is displayed against a scheme that retraces the story of the monument and it’s demolition.
*rus. : свобода (svoboda)