MONUMENTAL

Pavel Miguel's work is characterised by its rawness, its symbolic power and its rough but precise execution.Together with two other monumental sculptures, the "Modern Sisyphus", a version of the Greek myth in which the hero pushes an ordinary shopping cart uphill, and the "Mute", a huge face with closed eyes and a mouth sealed by a tightly screwed gag, his new work "Between Heaven and Hell" forms a trilogy that portrays our times. "Between Heaven and Hell" is Pavel Miguels new Pieta, in which Mary, the mother par excellence, appears this time seated on an imposing ammunition box, holding the new martyr in her arms: a soldier who falls at every moment in any war. The author deliberately contrasts the whiteness and purity of the mother with the dark military uniform of the dead soldier, the white tunic and veil with the harshness and martial character of the battle dress, the antagonism between mercy and duty, between light and darkness, between love and death, the replacement of the fallen anonymous soldier by Jesus in the arms of the loving mother. Pavel Miguel pays homage to Michelangelo, but replaces the harmony of the Renaissance with the drama of our time and uses an additional human dimension to the figures to reinforce the message of despair and loss.

Pavel Miguel, Sculptor