Another giant head has appeared in a Vancouver public space, this time a Yaletown park has become inhabited by Igor Mitoraj’s classically inspired Eros Bendato Scippolato (Eros Bandaged and Cracked).

Igor Mitoraj (born 1944) is a Polish artist born in Oederan, Germany.

He studied painting at the Kraków School of Art and at the Kraków Academy of Art under Tadeusz Kantor. After graduating, he had several joint exhibitions, and held is first solo exhibition in 1967 at the Krzysztofory Gallery in Poland. In 1968, he moved to Paris to continue his studies at the National School of Art.

Shortly afterwards, he became fascinated by Latin American art and culture, spending a year painting and travelling around Mexico. The experience led him to take up sculpture.

He returned to Paris in 1974 and two years later he held another major solo exhibition at the Gallery La Hune, including some sculptural work. The success of the show persuaded him that he was first and foremost a sculptor.

Here’s some more information about Mitoraj written by Miriam Blume.

Igor Mitoraj Poland/Italy Patinated Bronze

Mitoraj’s work exhibits a contemporary sensitivity, but references a lost classical aesthetic.

This work depicts a fragment of an ancient monument to Eros, the god of love, here blindfolded, suggesting that love is blind. Mitoraj is one of the foremost Polish artists to have gained international success.

Igor Mitoraj, one of the foremost Polish artists and one of a few to have gained international success, creates gigantic figures of ancient gods, heroes, muses and titans, often depicting them as bandaged heroic figures. Long fascinated with the beauty of Greek and Roman sculptures, his work exhibits a contemporary sensitivity, but references back to a lost classical beauty.

Eros Bendato Scrippolato (Eros blindfolded and cracked) is a bronze sculpture made to look like a fragment of an ancient monument to Eros, the god of love. Known as Amor in Latin and Cupid in Roman mythology, Eros is the youngest, most mischievous, and beautiful of the immortal gods.

Often portrayed with his arrows, Eros is represented here as blind folded, suggesting that love is blind, and also that Eros victims were randomly selected.

The head with its surface patina, cracked plates and pieces of shattered fragments suggest the destruction of objects and monuments brought on by time.

Some suggest that this mutilated head represents a loss of history, myths and of a connection with higher powers; to others it is a criticism of contemporary civilization and a warning against its destructive power.