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For 10 years, people have been passing by a colossus 11 meters high, 6 meters wide and over 4 tons in weight every day, on their way out of the city of Buzau, but few know its true story and the young man behind the work, the one who managed in about 3 years to erect a unique monument: the Omagiu/Tribute statue.
The stainless steel work, made in 2013, was placed at the exit from the eastern city of Buzau, in close proximity to the Maracineni bridge, a key point that connects two regions of Romania - Muntenia / Wallachia and Moldavia. Often confused with the statues of Romanian rulers, admired for its brilliance, the metal giant hides a special meaning and was erected in honour of an... employee.
The statue was commissioned by a businessman from the city of Buzau, as a tribute to Florinel Dinu, a dedicated engineer who had lost his battle with a cruel disease. In his memory and as a sign of appreciation for the effort made over time, the company's manager proposed to the plastic artist Bogdan Lefter to create a monument.
"I was asked if I wanted to make a work in memory of a colleague who had just died (...) a work in his memory. I later found out that he had also been a painter and I was intrigued by this. His office was intact and there were the paintings of Florinel Dinu, the employee who had died, and who had been head of production, engineer. I saw various paintings that inspired me instantly, my mind made a kind of collage, in 2-3 seconds I had the inspiration for a work that took me two, three years to put into practice. He was not a professional painter, yet still a talented painter,'' Bogdan Lefter told AGERPRES.
It did not take long until the plastic artist began to sketch the work that would later become one of the largest metal sculptures in Romania. To give value to the statue, Bogdan Lefter chose stainless steel, which has special properties, but is difficult to model.
"It actually started with the realization of an internal reinforcement. I don't think anything like this has been done before in the country, a figurative stainless steel sculpture in detail. The work is around 11 meters high, up to the tip of the spear which actually turns into a brush. Stainless steel is the most difficult metal to process and shape, and any wrong welding is highlighted. I designed every part, I cut materials with a locksmith and a welder, I made templates, I beat the sheet metal. Stainless steel must look like a precious metal, I chose stainless steel because it lends itself to the exterior. In principle, the metals that have proven to be suitable are bronze, stainless steel and corten. I chose on the basis of a resistant metal and I chose the most complicated, precious, shiny version, it is a metal that behaves like a mirror, it changes depending on everything that happens around it, depending on the weather, it metamorphoses into function of lights, shadows,', explains the plastic artist.
Considering the dimensions of the stainless steel statue, the creator of the work remembers that, along the artistic process, he encountered a series of difficulties.
"I worked in parallel, in parts. I worked in the factory for about 7-8 months, then on site, because it could not be transported in one piece. From a logistical point of view it was very difficult, because the moment I were completing the work, I had no way to transport it around the city and I had to do it in pieces, the base, the horse, the centaur, the rider, the cube - they were separate pieces , which we put on the plinth and built on the spot for a good period of time. It's been 10 years since it was installed,'' he says.
Very few people know the story of the stainless steel statue and its meaning, a very special one, which the artist appreciates that any person could resonate with.
"Iconographically, the phantasmagorical equestrian statuary group might resemble St. George fighting the dragon or a modern Don Quixote fighting windmills. Both versions complete the meaning of the work, which is that of man's struggle with the various obstacles he encounters throughout his life for the polishing of the soul, in order to gain a glimpse of immortality. We have the illusion of conflict, the rider seemingly holding a spear in his hand ready to pierce the kinetic cube, the spear metamorphosing into a brush with which he paints his thoughts on the surfaces of the cube. By virtue of the cube's kinetic movement at the moment of interaction between the brush and the eye on one side of the cube, the symbol of introspection and the dialogue with one's own consciousness takes shape. The centaur gallops firmly, guiding the rider towards a clear destination, trumpeting his presence in apocalyptic notes, a metaphor for the road through life and the things we leave behind," Bogdan Lefter says.
Although the work is an imposing one, it has also attracted criticism over time, the Buzau plastic artist reveals.
"The world appreciates, however, there are few who know exactly the value of this work, there are also people who criticize, for example, aspects related to the aesthetic side, to the artistic division," he confesses.
Bogdan Lefter discovered his artistic inclination at the age of 14. From that moment there followed a long period of time dedicated to study and practice. Bogdan Adrian Lefter was born on March 1, 1983 in Buzau, where he attended the Margareta Sterian Art High School and is a graduate of the Bucharest National University of Arts, in 2006, majoring in Metal, being a university assistant and a doctor in Visual Arts.
"Since the age of 14, I realized that I have these modeling skills, I finished the Painting Department, but I modeled various things in a self-taught way at the same time, I then graduated from the Ceramics, Glass, Metal Department, where I specialized in metal at the University of Bucharest - Faculty of Decorative Art and Design. Now I'm an assistant at this department, last year I got my doctorate in visual arts,'' Bogdan Lefter tells us.
He is one of the Romanian plastic artists who have become noticed on the world level, in the framework of some thematic competitions and symposia.
"I participated in a sand competition in Switzerland, monumental sand sculptures, also in Switzerland, and then in Japan I participated in snow competitions, then I started cultural symposiums, the first in China, where around 130 artists were invited. I represented Romania and made a huge rhinoceros there. I've been to Vietnam, Thailand, where I worked in wax, I made a shooting star in Iran, I've also been to Armenia, Turkey, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg,'' adds the artist from Buzau.
One of the most recent works brought to light by Bogdan Lefter during the International Sculpture Symposium in Buzau dubbed Water Memory is the Butterfly Effect sculpture.
