🇺🇸 Igor Mitoraj in Minneapolis, USA

Eros (1999) is a colossal bronze — 12 feet long, 7 feet tall, 4,000 lbs — permanently installed on the front lawn of the Minneapolis Institute of Art at the corner of 3rd Avenue South and 24th Street. The MIA raised $1 million from the community in 2015 to acquire it for the museum centennial. The work depicts Eros, Greek god of love, with cracked surfaces and a slipped bandage, one of Mitoraj's most powerful explorations of beauty and fragility.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art, founded in 1915, holds one of the largest encyclopaedic art collections in the United States — over 90,000 objects spanning 5,000 years. The community fundraising campaign for Eros in 2015 was itself a cultural event: $1 million raised by the public as the museum's centennial gift to the city. MIA's curator Jennifer Komar Olivarez described the work as depicting Eros with "the bandage slipped from his eyes — a hint that he has seen something of life's inevitable tragedy." The sculpture is now the first thing visitors see approaching the museum entrance.

Minneapolis has one of the most active public art programmes of any American city, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art sits at the heart of this culture. The museum's building — designed by McKim, Mead and White in 1915, expanded by Kenzo Tange in 1974 and by Michael Graves in 2006 — is itself a significant architectural statement. Eros stands on the corner of 3rd Avenue South and 24th Street, visible from passing traffic and welcoming visitors before they reach the entrance steps. Its 4,000 pounds of bronze and its 12-foot length make it one of the largest Mitoraj works permanently installed outside Europe.

Permanent Work