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picture (around 2018) from Facebook Watch, see link in the documentation |
Life and works
Selak already earlier talked publicly about his experiences with recovery from clinical death, as in the summer of 2016 when he was interviewed by Mondo BiH. The picture above, a still from the video with the interview, shows how Selak while talking leans on the shoulder of a sculpture that portrays Russian president Vladimir Putin.
For several years, Vladimir Putin was flanked by Donald Trump, President of the United States (January 2017-January 2021). A sculpture of his wife Melanie was also added.
This collection, which has emerged in recent years, was a creation of Stevo Selak, who lives in the house near the site. He studied at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Banja Luka and currently has a job with an insurance company.
In his life Selak had three clinical death experiences, two times as a child. He has come out with these experiences, most recently in a video of more than an hour on YouTube (October 2020), in which -according to the caption at the video- he saw heaven and hell and discovered amazing things.
Selak has also become known for books he wrote, such as Life of Jovanov, a book about his father's experiences in World War II and the struggles after the break-up of Yugoslavia.
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| this picture is a screenshot from the video of an interview in 2016 |
Selak already earlier talked publicly about his experiences with recovery from clinical death, as in the summer of 2016 when he was interviewed by Mondo BiH. The picture above, a still from the video with the interview, shows how Selak while talking leans on the shoulder of a sculpture that portrays Russian president Vladimir Putin.
This sculpture of Putin is the very first sculpture that Selak made, indeed in 2016 or slightly before. It took 200 kilos of clay to make it. At a later stage the sculpture was plasticized and painted in a chrome color.
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a picture of Putin (2016), from Selak's account on Facebook |
When a violent storm raged in Banja Luka in December 2017, Trump's clay sculpture was blown over and fell apart in so many pieces that it was beyond repair.
Melanie's sculpture was saved. A new sculpture of Trump has been made, but then with an iron infrastructure.
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| picture from Facebook |
The sculpture collection also included a self-portrait of Selak, as can be seen in the image above, where he poses in identical clothing and in the same posture next to the (well-resembling) sculpture.
The site also had a sculpture of Selak's son Matthew and furthermore it included portrayals of Jesus Christ and Socrates (at the right in the image above), the American actor Chuck Norris (at the left in the image above), the Swedish princess Victoria (the lady in the red robe in the very first image), while also Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea since 2011, was added.
The site, which for a while was the only art environment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, could be seen from the street, but an address is not available.
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picture (2022) by Tiramisu Bootfighter |
In the spring of 2022, Selak removed the sculptures because his wife was not comfortable, especially at night, with the presence of the easily accessible collection. This was reported by Tiramisu Bootfighter, who visited countries in Eastern Europe with his Galerie Ambulante in the autumn of 2022. The photo above shows Selak with the suitcase containing the ambulatory gallery
Documentation
* Article (March 2020) in newspaper Dnevni Avaz about some recent additions to the site
* Article (January 2018) in newspaper Blic about some of Selak's books
* Article (June 2017) in British newspaper the Mirror
Video
* A video of the ensemble is available on Facebook Watch , take a look via this link
Stevo Selak
Ensemble of life-size sculptures
Banja Luka, suburb Paprikovac, Bosnia and Herzegovina
sculptures have been removed
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