Oscar & Eduard Wilde [Public Art In Galway And Tartu]

I have seen this described as ‘Oscar Wilde And Someone Else’ but this installation is much more interesting and complicated than that. 

In my photographs [viewing from the front] the Irish writer Oscar Wilde is to the left and the Estonian writer Eduard Wilde is to the right. They appear to be conversing, but the two men are not related and never met.

The Eduard Wilde statue was presented to Galway when Estonia joined the EU in 2004. The sculpture is located in front of a Lazlo Jewellers shop in William Street. There is an exact copy of the sculpture in Tartu in Estonian.

The sculpture in front of Café Wilde (sculptor T Kirsipuu, 1999) is a fun speculation about literary history. Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), who was born in Ireland, and Estonian writer Eduard Vilde (1856-1933), both of the same generation, sit on a bench together. Sculptor Tiiu Kirsipuu, who modelled the writers according to photos, has noted that the year she had in mind when she created the sculpture was 1890, when the two Wildes could have met for a witty chat.

 ZOZIMUZ VISITS GALWAY

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