🇺🇸 Igor Mitoraj in St. Louis, USA

Eros Bendato (Eros Bound, 1999) is permanently installed at CityGarden, the award-winning outdoor sculpture park spanning two city blocks on Market Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The massive hollow bronze head lies on its side on a slanted granite circle, surrounded by flowing water. This is the same work Mitoraj gifted to Kraków's Main Market Square. CityGarden is free and open to the public year-round — one of the finest urban sculpture parks in the United States.

CityGarden opened in 2009 as a free public sculpture park operated by the Gateway Foundation, spanning two city blocks along Market Street. The collection of 24 international works — permanently accessible to all, free of charge — was immediately praised as one of the finest urban sculpture programmes in the United States. Eros Bendato lies on a slanted granite circle, water flowing across its cracked bronze surface, in conversation with St. Louis's own history of classical civic architecture. The Gateway Foundation acquired the work directly to ensure it would remain permanently in the public domain.

St. Louis has a long tradition of classical public art — the city's Forest Park is one of the largest urban parks in the United States, and the CityGarden complements a civic landscape that includes significant Beaux-Arts and neoclassical architecture from the early 20th century. Eros Bendato's water feature — the work lies on a slanted granite circle across which water flows continuously — connects it to the city's tradition of public fountains. The Gateway Foundation's decision to acquire the work permanently, rather than lease it temporarily, signals confidence in Mitoraj's long-term cultural significance.

Permanent Work