A Public Art “Giant” Popped up in Budapest this Month

Public installation, Ripped Up, features a stone giant emerging from the ground
Photo via: László Balkányi/We Love Budapest

A stone giant burst through Széchenyi Square in Budapest earlier this month. Artist Ervin Herve-Loranth and Gallery Out of Home collaborated on a literally earth-shattering temporary sculpture, entitled Feltépve (Ripped Up) and presented as part of contemporary art fair Art Market Budapest.

Constructed out of lightweight polystyrene foam painted to resemble granite, the installation consists of a colossal head and arms—its face anguished and its body covered with patches of turf–crawling out of subterranean Budapest through a lawn in one of the city’s famous squares.

Gallery Out of Home claims a multitude of meanings for the sculpture that seem more focused on the freedom the giant is trying to obtain than the fear the work might incite in viewers, according to City Lab. “The creation has several meanings, such as the symbolism of freedom, the desire to break free, the curiosity, and the dynamics of development,” they say.

While higher order, existential meanings might have been intended be read into the sculpture, it seems the decision to install the piece in conjunction with ArtMarket Budapest also has ties to commentary on the art world: “It can be interpreted as the demonstration of the present situation of the contemporary art scene, or even as it strives to create an urban public communal space,” the gallery continued.