From Poland with love: Polish town erects fluorescent yellow statue of Lenin urinating called 'Fountain of the Future'

Fountain styled after a bronze that was once a focal point of the district

That original statue was the target of attacks until its final removal in 1989

Artists hope the work will spur debate over a permanent statue for the spot



As the founder and architect of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Illych Lenin has been immortalised in statuary countless times throughout the former Eastern Bloc.

But this is probably the first time the Marxist revolutionary has been rendered in fluorescent yellow - while taking a leak.

The irreverent artwork has gone up in Nowa Huta, a suburb of Krakow, Poland, as part of the city's sixth Grolsch ArtBoom Festival.

Taking the p***? This fluorescent green statue of Lenin taking a leak has been erected as part of the Grolsch ArtBoom Festival in Nowa Huta, a suburb of Krakow, the capital of Poland

The Fountain of the Future, as it's been called by artists Bartosz Szydlowski and Malgorzata Szydlowska, is styled after a statue of Lenin that was once a focal point of the district.

Built in the early-1950s around a massive steelworks dedicated to Lenin, Nowa Huta was intended as an 'ideal socialist town' that would counter-balance supposedly 'bourgeois' Krakow, reports Polskie Radio.

The whole design of the district was supposed to instill a socialist worldview, with architects perceived not as mundane municial planners but rather as 'engineers of the human soul.'

But the workers proved less loyal to Marxist-Leninism than expected, and the district quickly became a centre of opposition to the totalitarian government.

The original bronze Lenin statue was the target of bomb attacks in the 1970s and 1980s, but bungling dissidents only managed to damage its feet.

It was finally removed in 1989 after the fall of communism in Poland and the plaza were it stood was renamed 'Ronald Reagan Square'.

Irreverent: The Fountain of the Future, as it's been called by artists Bartosz Szydlowski and Malgorzata Szydlowska, is styled after a statue of Lenin that was once a focal point of the district

Mr Szydlowski was quoted by the Telegraph as saying that the statue would show people that Nowa Huta is now just a 'grey and gloomy' town and that its residents have a 'sense of humour'.

The artists hope it will stimulate debate over what form a permanent installation at the same spot might take.

President Bronislaw Komorowski visited Nowa Huta last weekend as part of the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the June 4, 1989, free elections.