The submissions, showing in the Barabás Villa until October 25, were among 64 for a monument to the memory of the 15,0000-22,000 Polish soldiers, and civilians massacred by the Soviet secret police in the forest near Katyn in the spring of 1940. The tender for the statue was called by the Budapest Municipal Council and the Polish government in September 2008.
It appears the jury's decision was well thought out and will serve the park well. The winning design by the sculptor Géza Széri-Varga and the architect Zoltán Széri-Varga undoubtedly fits the purpose of the tender: to mark the tragedy not just anywhere, but in Katyn, a point praised by the jury.
Many of the submissions were similar to the monument on '56ers Square, a mass of steel obelisks that come closer and closer together until the merge in a single angle. Others were more traditional, featuring inscribed columns.
The top three contenders in the contest were all uniquely creative, but only the winner's plan could be implemented in the park. The Széri-Varga team's monument consists of symmetrical stone cube with a rusted steel covering into which the profiles of trees have been cut deep into the surface. At night, light will shine out of the profiles.
Second-place winner Tibor Szemenyey's submission would have created a 79-metre long net of "DNA" ten metres above the park.
Author: Éva Kelemen / Photo: Dániel Kováts
