A statue of Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine's Odessa has been converted into a monument to Darth Vader — the city's response to a law requiring the eradication of Communist Party symbols.
The Lenin statue was destined to be dismantled, but instead, Odessa — a Black Sea port city renowned for its cultural diversity and flippant sense of humor — chose to transform the monument, unveiling the new Darth Vader statue Friday, local Dumskaya.net news portal reported.
“The first monument on planet Earth to the Sith Lord, the supreme commander of the Imperial Fleet, Darth Vader, has appeared in Odessa,” Dumskaya.net said in its report.
The Darth Vader likeness, created by renowned Odessa sculptor Alexander Milov, maintains the classic pose struck by Lenin in Soviet-era monuments, with the left hand clenched into a fist and bent at the elbow in front of the chest.
Lenin's head has been replaced with Darth Vader's iconic helmet, and the Soviet Union founder's overcoat has been lengthened to become Darth Vader's cape.
The monument decorates the yard of a local plant, Pressmash, the site of the original Lenin statue, and its transformation was at the request of plant employees and residents of nearby buildings and a workers' dormitory, Dumskaya.net reported.
The original plaster sculpture of Lenin had fallen into disrepair after decades of weathering the elements, prompting the sculptor to first fortify the monument with a protective layer. Its new “Darth Vader parts” have been made of a titanium alloy and “attached to the leader of the world proletariat” with a glue used in the space industry, Dumskaya.net reported.
Odessa's new sculpture has be outfitted with a useful technological feature — a wireless router planted within Darth Vader's head will provide wireless Internet to passersby, Dumskaya.net reported..
Milov, the sculptor, designed the “Love” art installation that appeared at the Burning Man festival in the U.S. state of Nevada this summer.
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