Group exhibition “Saturday I” Laste Loomingu Maja, Tallinn, 1990
Bronze and concrete
The sculpture was inspired by a caricature by French artist Honore Daumier, which mocked King Louis-Philippe I and, more broadly, the diversity of absolute rulers. The work was completed in the last year of high school, and new parties were springing up in Estonia like mushrooms in the rain. One of the most humorous parties was the Estonian Royalist Party, which, through humor and seriousness, saw a monarch of the royal family as the only possible guarantor of Estonia’s development potential.
The statue was ceremonially presented at the opening of the exhibition, and in 1993, the royal family gave it to the city of Rapla with the obligation to have it washed by the mayor every year around St. George’s Day. At the same time, they have promised that if the head is not washed, the City Head will be taken away from Rapla, and thus a proud tradition has developed – the Washing of the City Head.
