Monument to Mother in Irkutsk by Zurab Tsereteli

On February 16, 2015, in Irkutsk, the results of the competition for the best design of the “Mother” monument announced by the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the city administration in February 2014 were summed up.

The initiator of the creation of such a monument was the Council of Honorary Citizens of the city. In the second round of the competition, 8 authors and creative teams took part, who submitted 11 works to the jury. The majority of the jury members recognized the project of the monument to the Mother as the winner, executed by the largest Russian sculptor - monumentalist, president of the Russian Academy of Arts ZK Tsereteli. His sculptural composition was noted by the jury as the most "professionally executed and consistent with the concept of the monument." It is supposed to be installed on Karl Marx Street in the Okhlopkov Square, surrounded by tall trees, which will give the image an additional lyrical shade. In the near future, the projects of the monument "Mother" will be presented at the exhibition.

The image of a woman - mother, ascetic, defender, guardian of family and the world, personification of love and warmth - is one of the leading topics of the artist’s entire creative career. Irkutsk is an old Russian city whose history is connected with the fate of the Decembrists. The new monument involuntarily refers to the images of the sculptural composition of the author of “The Gate of Fate”, dedicated to the wives of the Decembrists, whose feat has become one of the most striking and piercing pages of Russian history.