Mr. Confectioner

The most poetic expression of the architecture and public sculpture of the Stalinist era is the wet dream of the mad confectioner. In our concrete sculpture Mr. Confectioner socialist realism and consumerist neo-liberalism encounter. That is how totalitarian realism is born.

The choice of material in our sculpture reflects The Lapland war (1944-45) and the remains of the concrete dugouts of that war. We live at the mercy of history and in the surroundings that it has created. Memory is the mother of the arts and, without remembering, it is impossible to understand the present, not to mention the future.

Mr. Confectioner describes the environment in which it stands. It reflects values, which are not shaken by climate change or the ecological balance of nature. In Lapland’s history there is darkness and taboos, that are disguised traumatically. The most visible and superficial disguise is the tourist product Santa Claus.
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The artwork was created in the summer of 2007. It was donated to the University of Lapland as a part of the Locations of Emancipation X Conference of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Lapland , August 29 – September 1 2007. The statue is one of the public artworks of Rovaniemi city, but so far it has not been included in organised tours viewing public sculptures.