Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Members of right-wing German groups say an art installation of three up-ended buses in Dresden meant as a memorial to victims in Aleppo, Syria, is a provocation.
The public sculpture, called Monument, is by Manaf Halbouni, a 32-year-old German citizen of Syrian descent. It consists of three rusted buses, installed vertically in front of downtown Dresden's Frauenkirche church. It is meant to suggest barricades erected in Aleppo and the suffering of its citizens in the Syrian civil war.
The artist unveiled the sculpture Monday to mixed reviews, a week ahead of the city's annual memorial day. The observance marks the bombardment of Dresden in World War II, when Allied air raids targeted the city with saturation bombings that incited firestorms, killing an estimated 25,000 civilians.
Protesters jeered Dresden Mayor Dirk Hilbert as he dedicated the sculpture, and a statement by the far-right Alternative for Germany Party called it an "abuse of artistic freedom" and "scrap metal" motivated to provoke disharmony in Germany. Users of a right-wing website called the work a deliberate attempt to shame the city of Dresden and minimize its historic suffering.
Hilbert's supporters said the city obtained funds for a memorial that will identify 19,000 of the known victims of the 1945 air raids. The art gallery underwriting Halbouni's sculpture is also presenting an exhibition on Germans expelled from Poland after the war.
While Halbouni said his work is symbolic of "peace, freedom and humanity," the anti-Islamist German movement Pegida called it "idiotic."
