the acquaintance “Snowman” located at the roundabout of Los Majuelos avenue, on the border between Santa Cruz Y The lagoonhas been chosen by thousands of people on at least four occasions, as the worst monument located in one of the 23,000 roundabouts in all of Spain.
However, now a group of citizens is mobilizing to achieve the opposite: to be recognized as one of the most appreciated in the national territory and a outstanding piece of the movement that some have come to call “roundabout”.
The ironic term refers to “an artistic movement consisting of crown the roundabouts with hideous monuments“, was indicated in one of the surveys.
Roundabout arose in Murcia and has spread “like a plague” through the thousands of spaces of this type that exist in Spainwas concluded in another of the polls.
In practically all the occasions in which it has been sought to know the opinion of the citizens to choose the ugliest and most hated monumentsthe Snowman has always occupied the top positions.
In 2013 the digital Información.com and Libertad Digital and years later motorpasion.com, La Sexta and Cadena Ser carried out massive votes and in all of them he was chosen as one of the greatest monumental horrors from all over Spain.
The peninsular voters were struck by the fact that on an island that stands out for its good weather, a tribute to snow is being paid.
The comments of the participants in the voting For example, they noted: “it’s not bad for small children to have done it”, “seeing this, it doesn’t surprise me that it doesn’t snow in Canary Islands“”, “I live nearby and I can’t stop thinking who came up with this”, “the best thing is the auction of the saucepan”, “it looks like the Spanish Mr. Bean did it”, “it seems incredible to me and a lack of respect to pay for this” or “to jail with the author”.
Even a reader agrees with a Graffiti that appeared years ago on the doll itself asking them to tear it down. The truth is that whether you like it or not, this piece has ended up giving its name to the entire neighborhood that is located around it.
The work
Despite the derogatory comments, the author is the renowned Czech artist Jirí Georg Dokoupilwhose proposals achieved great success during the 80s of the 20th century.
This creator had his first contact with the island when the Santa Cruz de Tenerife commissioned him to design the 1987 Carnival poster.
From then on, he was also chosen to make this sculpture, which from the beginning has been surrounded by controversy. First, because the neighbors criticized its enormous cost and dubious aesthetics and then because the Autonomous Organization of Culture (OAC) of Santa Cruz has refused on several occasions to maintain and clean it, considering that it is not their property.
In the Canary Islands Other pieces have not turned out well either such as those located on the route between Agaete and the capital of Gran Canaria, those of Maspalomas or some of Fuerteventura.
roundabouts
The proliferation of roundabouts with their consequent sculpture throughout the national territory is not accidental. The origin is the law approved at the beginning of the times of democracy that established “the obligation to allocate in public works contracts a game of at least 1% to conservation or enrichment of the Spanish Historical Heritage or to the promotion of artistic creativity, preferably in the work itself or in its immediate environment”.
Despite the good intentions of this legislation, the truth is that the result has not always been to the taste of citizens. The problem arose because to benefit from this 1% the work had to exceed 601,000 euros and not affect the security and defense of the State.
For this reason they have proliferated in large public works, newly built polygons, urban expansion plans and the like, giving rise to what has been sarcastically defined as “roundabout”.
