Red Corner: Andy Warhol’s Slovakian Museum

by Neil Woodburn on

Today, February 22, marks the 19th anniversary of artist Andy Warhol’s death in 1987. For those of you who are big fans of Warhol, really really big fans, you might want to consider a trip to Medzilaborce, Slovakia to honor his passing.

Where?!?!?

Medzilaborce is a small town in the Carpathian Mountains not too far from the Ukrainian border. Although few have heard of it, most have heard of Warhol, the town’s most famous prodigal son-or grandson as it may be. Warhol’s parents lived here before immigrating to the United States in 1913 where Andrew Varchola (his original name) was born.

Warhol eventually became quite famous in America but remained unknown back home in Slovakia. In fact, authorities considered him anti-communist and ensured he received little exposure behind the Iron Curtain. It wasn’t until the fall of communism that the people of Medzilaborce learned about their association with greatness. Naturally, they did what every small town does with hometown heroes-they built a museum to honor him.

The Warhol Family Museum of Modern Art is a long, seven-hour drive from Bratislava and may be the most difficult journey the 17,000 tourists who visited last year have ever undertaken to see world class art. Mostly funded by EU grants, the museum features a collection of photographs and documents pertaining to the Warhol family as well as artwork by Andy’s nephew, brother and mother. The real treasures, however, are here on loan from the Warhol Foundation. This appropriately includes Lenin and Mao renditions, as well as a Jackie Kennedy, Mick Jagger, and of course, a Campbell’s Soup can.

Andy is also immortalized by a bronze statue standing in front of the $1.3 million museum. The town’s old Lenin statue, toppled in 1989, is undoubtedly rolling over in its grave.

Red Corner: Socialist Realism in Minneapolis?!?!

by Neil Woodburn on

Socialist Realism artwork has always fascinated me.

I had never heard of this style until I visited the Soviet Union and saw it for myself. It is utterly unique in the sense that it was artwork officially sanctioned by the Soviet government with the purpose of glorifying communism. It wasn’t just slipshod propaganda, however. The paintings and sculptures were often technically superb and crafted by very talented artists. The best description I’ve heard of this style is that it is, ironically, very religious in nature; merely replace Jesus with Lenin or Marx, and you’ve got yourself a piece of socialist realism artwork with all the idolatry and adulation once reserved solely for the church.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, exhibitions of Socialist Realism have reemerged in Prague, Moscow, and various other former Warsaw Pact countries. Traveling beyond the former Iron Curtain was the only way to see such artwork. But this is no longer the case. There is actually a Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota of all places! The curious can now stay stateside to check out the fascinating world of Socialist Realism artwork-the largest collection outside of the former Soviet Union-in addition to numerous other selections by Russian masters as well.

Red Corner: Post Civil War Yugoslavia

by Neil Woodburn on

During the first half of the 1990s, the term Balkans suffered the same misfortune that befell Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, and Iwo Jima; the name no longer evoked a place, but rather a war.

Unfortunately, this is still the case in many people’s minds. Although the war that destroyed Yugoslavia has been over a long time, tourists-often the most timid of creatures-are just now starting to tiptoe back into the region. We posted recently about Sarajevo’s glorious rise from the ashes. Today, I’d like to send you a bit deeper into the former Yugoslavia to Serbia and Montenegro with journalist Simon Calder of The Independent (UK).

Calder uncovers a magical land with very few tourists (indeed, he only met one) and an unbelievably friendly and helpful people (including a taxi driver who insisted on buying him lunch before taking him to his destination). Calder waxes eloquently about the natural beauty of the region, and most impressively, about Kotor a walled town at the foot of an impressive fjord that also happens to be a UNESCO world heritage site. “Like a warm version of Norway,” was the quote that really inspired me to add this wonderful place to my travel list.

Red Corner Brides: Safeguards on Truly Engaged Travel

by Neil Woodburn on

People travel for all sorts of reasons.

Some go to explore culture. Some go to experience adventure. And some go to find brides.

Yep, the mail order bride industry is alive and kicking throughout Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Southeast Asia. I’ve run into a few of these hapless bachelors in Moscow who were on week-long date trips organized through local find-a-Russian-bride agencies. They had 2-3 dates a day and a Russian translator who translated sweet nothings between the nervous participants. One day I even met a Japanese translator who translated the Russian translator’s English into Japanese for his Japanese clients (yes, that means four people attended each date).

An average of 6,000 American men find brides annually through such services. As you might imagine, there is potential for a whole slew of problems under such circumstances. Some arrangements work out, of course, but others become nightmares. Indeed, a handful of crimes have been committed against mail order brides, including the horrific Seattle murder of a 20-year-old woman from Kyrgyzstan by her 270 pound husband already on his second mail order bride.

As a result, President Bush signed the Orwellian sounding, International Marriage Broker Regulation Act on January 5th of this year. When it takes effect on March 7th, bachelors will be required to submit to a sex offender background check, a criminal record check, and answer a handful of marital related questions before bridal agencies can begin searching for their ideal spouse.

I applaud the effort, but come on, how in the world is this ever going to be regulated and enforced? And furthermore, can’t you losers find brides on your own? Get a life!

Red Corner: Prague’s Ill-fated Stalin Statue

by Neil Woodburn on

For the past week, Red Corner has covered the fate of communist statues since communism itself fell more than 15 years ago. We’d like to conclude this series with a final post about the remains of a notoriously hideous monument which are nearly invisible today, yet unknowingly gazed upon by thousands of tourists on a daily basis.

Prague is the most visited capital of the former Warsaw Pact, yet very few of the millions of tourists who trek across its famous Charles Bridge have any idea what it is they are looking at when they gaze north from the bridge and spy an enormous empty plinth, nearly overgrown with foliage, that sits atop a nearby hill.

This is where the world’s largest Stalin statue once stood.

The fifty meter tall monument, ugly and hated by so many, dominated the Prague skyline-but only for seven years. The unlucky builders finished the statue in 1955 just before de-Stalinization and watched curiously as authorities then dynamited it out of existence in 1962. Only the massive stone plinth remained behind as though it were the star of some Ozymandias poem.

Like poisoned soil, nothing sprouted from the plinth until communism itself died. Then, a weird succession of items followed; a massive lips-and-tongue Rolling Stones banner, a 35 foot statue of singer Michael Jackson, a billboard for a local politician, and ultimately the winner of a design-something-for-the-plinth contest-an enormous metronome.

For a while, the city’s first rock and roll club operated in a bomb shelter beneath the plinth but it was eventually shut down by authorities. It is now apparently used to grow mushrooms.

In the beautiful city of Prague, so overwhelming in its fine architecture, little thought is given to this overgrown plinth and the evil monument it once supported-one so very horrible that the sculptor who designed it killed himself a few days before it was unveiled. Tourists pass by oblivious and continue on their merry way. Oh my, how beautiful this town is!