Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In 2005 – with Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs deeply divided following a brutal war in the 1990s – a bronze statue was unveiled in Mostar of a figure it was hoped everyone could agree on: Bruce Lee.
The inauguration was attended by the late kung-fu star’s widow and the Chinese ambassador, and took place a day before a similar sculpture was revealed in Hong Kong, making it the world’s first public statue of the martial arts legend. Yet, after surviving a series of trials and tribulations, it mysteriously disappeared in March this year.
Sculptor Ivan Fijolić’s 1.68 metre statue depicted Lee in a typical “on guard” stance, standing slightly shorter than the man himself. The installation was spearheaded by the youth group Mostar Urban Movement, a somewhat ironic attempt “to question symbols, old and new, by mixing up high grandeur with mass culture and kung-fu.” They said that – for the battle-scarred Balkan state – it would stand as “a reminder that our heroes are very often fictitious and fleeting.”
At the time, the collective’s Veselin Gatalo said that Lee epitomised justice, mastery and honesty. “This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united, and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” he said. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”
Despite the passage of time, secessionist rhetoric remains rife across Bosnia and Herzegovina, putting its territorial integrity on a knife-edge. Last week, the UN passed a motion to commemorate the ethnic cleansing campaign which took place in the former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1995. It is estimated over 100,000 people were killed in the conflict, though the Bosnian Serb leader has denied his ethnic group committed genocide.
Mostar’s new statue would soon fall victim to the country’s post-war divisions. With both Croats and Muslims complaining that the statue faced their area in a hostile stance, the bronze was vandalised shortly after its unveiling. It was removed for repairs and was only returned to public view in 2013.
It became a landmark and tourist attraction in the city’s Park Zrinjevac. But, seven years later, it hit the international headlines again.
With Lee having been raised in Hong Kong, it is perhaps unsurprising that the monument was early to adopt a facemask and gloves in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. “A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready,” Lee’s daughter Sharon told her five million Instagram followers in 2020 with an accompanying picture. “Now if only the nunchucks worked in the fight against Covid.”
Kidnapped and amputated
Despite surviving the pandemic, when HKFP visited the site on Monday, the sculpture was nowhere to be seen. Joseph, an employee of the nearby Cafebar Paris, told HKFP: “It was vandalised… stolen, about three months ago.”
On March 3, local media reported that it had disappeared overnight.
A week later, the Sarajevo Times reported that police had recovered it, albeit amputated. “[T]he statue was taken off the plinth with a suitable tool and stolen,” a Ministry of Internal Affairs announcement reportedly said, adding that one person had been arrested. It was suspected the bronze would be melted down for cash.
The city of Mostar said that “depending on the damage… repairs will begin and it will be returned to the park.”
Local resident Almin Kovač told HKFP that the statue did, eventually, serve as a symbol of unity, because Lee was “righteous, brave and independent… people loved it.”
“When it was stolen, I was very sad as it was a small thing – I have three small children, and every time we go to the park… they were playing with the statue, shaking his hand… they ask ‘who is Bruce Lee’ and I’d explain 20 times, watching the movies in my home.”
“There is no amount of money or any material that is equal to the meaning of that statue, because everyone accepted it – the Muslims, the Croats, the Orthodox – so, everyone had the same feeling about Bruce Lee; something new, after the war,” he said.
At a time of political turmoil, it is hoped that Mostar’s bronze peace offering will return to its home in the park soon.
In the meantime, the site has remained a photo spot, with fans adopting the Chinese-American actor’s iconic action poses on the empty plinth.
Dateline:
Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
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