Alien Covenant: Grmeč Monument to the Revolution referenced for the domed citadel entrance?

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Grmeč Monument to the Revolution, completed in 1979, designed by Ljubomir Denković
 
a) Emirhan Eren who liked to post about Brutalist architecture, in August 22nd, 2017 posted on Twitter his realisation that the entrance to the domed temple was based upon the Grmeč Monument to the Revolution

  1. Emirhan Eren:1. "Cathedral" Alien Covenant, design by Steve Messing, 2017 2. "Grmeč" Spomenik in Bosina, design by Ljubomir Denković, 1979"
    (https://twitter.com/emrhneren/status/900030510138896384?lang=en-gb )

b) The Spomenik database responding to this find were able to document the similarity between the Grmeč Monument to the Revolution and the domed temple entrance
  • "Interestingly, a likeness of the monument was used in concept artwork for the 2017 Hollywood film 'Alien: Covenant' ), in which the Grmeč sculpture is depicted as some nature of alien temple." (http://www.spomenikdatabase.org/grmec)
  • "The shape of the memorial complex here at Grmeč appears to symbolize a newly breaking flower bud (Photo 5), which is itself may be a representation of newly emerging freedom and 'birth' brought about by the sacrifice of those who fought and died here. In addition, the interior of the bud is intended to represent the very heart of the Grmeč forest, where the hospital that operated here toiled to keep wounded soldiers alive. Meanwhile, the 'flower bud' shaped structure is juxtaposed by a circular pool --  this positioning may be meant to symbolize a dualistic relationship, with the blossoming of the 'flower bud' up from the earth representing 'life' and 'freedom', the adjacent pool symbolizes all those soldiers who fell and succumb to the violence of war."(http://www.spomenikdatabase.org/grmec)

c) Here we find that Steve Messing replacated the Grmeč Monument to the Revolution as the entrance to the temple in a piece of concept art.


messingart: Alien Covenant Temple (source: https://www.instagram.comt)


 d) See: Wayne Haag used the shell like form in his entrance for the domed building

Shell like entrance of the building by Wayne Haag, with mural on the inside wall.

e) The idea was used as the in the final building as seen in the film as well as the shell like entrance.



The large citadel in the engineers city which contains the Hall of Heads

f)  Having my realisations
Many thanks to Clara Fei-Fei of Yutani Corporation on Facebook who, having taken note of a retweet of a Twitter post in July 2017 featuring a link for "23 Forgotten Monuments From The Former Yugoslavia",  and taking an interest in general in these building structures went forth to buy the book "The Spomenik Monument Database" and on October 7th 2018 show photos of a selection of pages from the tome on her Facebook page, showing some examples of Croatian Brutalist Art including the Grmeč Monument to the Revolution ( https://www.facebook.com/yutanicorporation/  ) . I then recognised the structure realised that I had seen the connection made last year on Twitter by Emirhan Eren, liked it and forgot about it, but this day pulled the pieces together . (https://twitter.com/emrhneren/status/900030510138896384?lang=en-gb ) 

I had heard Clara Fei-Fei's Yutani Podcast #15 in August 2018 discussing this entrance but I wasn't able to spend time to sit down and work out what was being actually discussed in relation to this but on October 8th I sat down and listened to the podcast again, Grmeč isn't easy to pronounce and Wayne Haag then stated that it was a Soviet era sculpture became another blur since Yugloslavia had broken up with Russia back in the 1940s and Brutalist architecture started later, it probably wasn't up to him to know about the thing in detail anyway when he used it as reference.


2 comments:

  1. I am glad you found my research on the Grmec monument useful in your work here. What you've dug up is fascinating. I will be linking to this page on my profile page for Grmec. Keep up the good work!

    -Donald Niebyl of Spomenik Database

    ReplyDelete