브래드 다우니
Brad Downey

때문에 브래드는 슬로베니아 동료들과 지역 공동체와 함께 멜라니아라는 모순을 기념하기로 하였다. 포플러 나무를 선택하고 구입한 후, 같은 해 같은 달에 멜라니아와 같은 산부인과 병동에서 태어난 아마추어 전기톱 조각가인 MAXI를 만나 프로젝트에 참여시켰다. 기념비는 미국인들이 독립 선언을 기념하는 날에 세브니카 근처 로즈 노에서 작년에 공개되었다. 공개된 지 정확히 1년 후인 2020년 7월 4일, 알 수 없는 이들로 인해 로즈노의 기념비를 불태웠고 작가는 이를  철거하고 기념비와 주변을 돌보는 지역 사회단체와 힘을 합쳐 기념비를 대체하는 대체물 설치를 계획하였다.

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A Commemoration of a statue that was destroyed (made from a poplar tree, later, engulfed in flames). The monument was erected as a comment on the absurd state of politics permeating the contemporary landscape. The statue was intended as a satirical anti-monument commemorating the contradictory lie-infused reality we all find ourselves within. The cause for the erection of the monument to Melania is Brad’s first visit to Slovenia in the summer of 2018, when he discovered that it is the birthplace of the First Lady of his homeland. Another motivation could certainly be the aggressive anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies of her husband. So Brad decided to commemorate this contradiction named Melania together with a team of Slovenian colleagues and the local community. After choosing and buying the poplar tree and after meeting and bringing maxi - an amateur chainsaw sculptor, born in the same month of the same year and in the same maternity ward as Melania - into the project, the monument was unveiled last year in Rozno, near Sevnica, on the day when the American people celebrate the declaration of their independence.

Exactly one year after the unveiling, on the 4th of July 2020, Unknown perpetrators burned down the monument in Rozno. Brad then removed it and, joining forces with the local community that took care of the monument and its surroundings, began to plan the erection of a replacement.