Public spaces are, well, public, and whether we’re talking about the streets we walk on, the buildings we live in, or the monuments standing between them, the very least we’re entitled to is having opinions. However, people might have a different vision of what belongs where.
What an architect or artist might think is a bold statement can sometimes feel excessive and out of place to others. So we went around a few popular discussions on r/AskTheWorld where folks have been sharing the structures in their countries they hate the most, and here are some of the most talked-about “bad ideas” locals just can’t stop complaining about.
#21 Finland
This. Was over 100t euros. It's supposed to shoot a red beam to the sky and glow in Red when it's dark, but it never really does, or that I have seen.
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30points
#22 Canada
Crowds will gather around this “historic landmark” to hear to it whistle *BOOOOOO booooooo* while a lil steam comes out the top. Vancouver’s top tourist attraction, apparently.
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28points
#23 USA
There is a gilded fiberglass statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest off Highway 65 in Tennessee, just south of Nashville
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27points
#24 India
We recently erected this 70 ft statue of Lionel Messi
It was unveiled during his 3 day tour to India on which $36 million were reportedly spent.
Meanwhile, our national football team continues to suffer from a lack of public support, infrastructure and funds due to corruption.
It was unveiled during his 3 day tour to India on which $36 million were reportedly spent.
Meanwhile, our national football team continues to suffer from a lack of public support, infrastructure and funds due to corruption.
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27points
#26 Canada
My hometown Niagara Falls is full of this stuff. Exhibit A, Frankenstein eating Burger King
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25points
#27 Lithuania
I present to you this beautiful art installation in the capital of Lithuania.
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24points
#29 USA
How about the Boll Weevil Monument in Alabama? Yes that is a sculpture of a woman holding a traffic cone with a boll weevil on top. Why would they have a monument of a bug that eats cotton?
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24points
#31 USA
In the Southeastern US, we have the ugly Confederate monument on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
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22points
#33 Poland
Wrocław has something similar to Dublin.
Iglica is a communist monument for Poland regaining control over the formerly German “Recovered Territories”, built in 1948.
Iglica is a communist monument for Poland regaining control over the formerly German “Recovered Territories”, built in 1948.
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22points
#34 USA
This Statue of Lenin displayed on a prominent streetcorner in the Freemont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
It's on private property and is held in a private trust, so the city government lacks authority to remove it. And it's become a landmark in the Freemont neighborhood.
The statue was originally put on display in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1988--but was soon trashed during the wave of de-Leninization in Eastern Europe (the "Velvet Revolution").
A U.S. English teacher came across this Lenin statue in a scrapyard in Slovakia, with a homeless person living inside of it. He purchased the statue and shipped it to the USA in 1993. It moved around a bit, but has been in its current Freemont location since 1996.
It's on private property and is held in a private trust, so the city government lacks authority to remove it. And it's become a landmark in the Freemont neighborhood.
The statue was originally put on display in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1988--but was soon trashed during the wave of de-Leninization in Eastern Europe (the "Velvet Revolution").
A U.S. English teacher came across this Lenin statue in a scrapyard in Slovakia, with a homeless person living inside of it. He purchased the statue and shipped it to the USA in 1993. It moved around a bit, but has been in its current Freemont location since 1996.
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21points
#35 Argentina
The egg monument in Buenos Aires. It has another name and symbolism, but nobody cares, it is an egg. Like the cloud gate in Chicago that is the bean (and the bean is amazing. Not the cloud gate)
The funny thing is that I'm always thinking what could happen if it rolls downhill the street. I think that almost everyone is going to check it and push it a little bit.
The funny thing is that I'm always thinking what could happen if it rolls downhill the street. I think that almost everyone is going to check it and push it a little bit.
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21points
#36 Estonia
Our war of independence victory column. I don't know how people feel about it these days but it was widely panned when it was built in 2009 because of how hideous it looks up close. It also kept falling apart and needed constant repairs.
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21points
#38 USA
Sterling Heights, Michigan snuck a $335,000 "sculpture" past the taxpayers a few years ago, and they immediately started calling it the "Golden Hole".
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20points
#40 Canada
My city has a lot of weird local art, nothing famous nationally though.
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18points
