Zhdun – the name of the sculpture widespread in Runet Homunculus loxodontus by Dutch artist Margriet van Breevoort, made in the spring of 2016 for the University of Leiden (Netherlands), which became an Internet meme.
General information
The sculpture is a gray, legless creature with the head of a northern elephant seal, the body of a giant larva, and the arms of a human sitting on a chair in the waiting room.
Originally installed in front of the Leiden Children’s Hospital. As of February 2017, the sculpture has been moved inside the Leiden University Medical Center, into a hallway with over 10 other sculptures. On 19 February 2017, the sculpture is located at the entrance to Leiden University Medical Center. On August 13, 2019, the sculpture is again inside the medical center.
Sculpture creation
Sea . A similar head is shown on the statue
Hospital awarded Margrit van Brevorth a sculpture grant for the annual Leiden Sculptures competition. The theme of the 2016 competition was biological sciences.
The artist pondered for a long time about the theme of the future sculpture, since she did not want to depict something related to medicine or disease. She drew attention to people who are sitting in line to see a doctor awaiting a diagnosis, and decided to dedicate her sculpture to patients. According to Margrit van Brevort, with her sculpture she wanted to show that „patients just have to wait for their fate with the hope for the best.” In addition, the artist set herself the task of making this waiting patient attractive and sweet, so that he would be comfortable with him and he could make him laugh.
According to the artist, “my character is a kind of failed experiment, he waits and hopes to become better. He’s like a big cute lump of flesh that you want to hug. ” The sculpture is made of plastic and epoxy resin, which, when mixed, form a substance that resembles clay – it is hard and rough to the touch.
In 2016, the sculpture became Leiden’s most photographed landmark.
Meme
In January 2017, after posting a photograph of the sculpture on the Pikabu website, it became a popular meme on the Runet under the name “Zhdun”, in the Ukrainian and Belarusian segments of the Internet under the names “Zhdun”, “Pochekun”.
On February 24, 2017, the People’s Deputy of Ukraine Boryslav Beryoza brought the figure of „Zhduna” to the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada, which was placed on the parliamentary rostrum before the meeting and of the members of the Cabinet of Ministers. The deputy called Zhdun a symbol of the expectations of the Ukrainian society.
Russian political scientist and journalist Dmitry Travin called Zhdun a of Russia. In his opinion, the Russian Zhdun is sad, lazy and lethargic, but at the same time sympathetic and optimistic: he „Hung up his nose and folded his arms on his tummy” in anticipation of a change for the better, because „Stagnation has been reigning in the country for a long time and there are no conditions for political, civil or investment activity”… A similar opinion was expressed by sociologist Alexei Roshchin, who noted that the image of Zhdun, for all its attractiveness, also reflects the latent discontent of people: „This is a sign of general impoverishment, both intellectual and spiritual, since nothing interesting is happening in Russia.”…
The Dutch publication Mare noted that “in Russia, where a person is powerless against bureaucracy, endless waiting is an important part of everyday life,” and in conditions where “social problems cannot be resolved by a legitimate parliament, an independent judiciary or demonstrations,” an Internet satire remains the only way to express dissatisfaction with the authorities, which led to the popularity of the meme. Le Monde reporter Isabelle Mandro connects the popularity of the image as with memories of Soviet times, „When it was necessary to queue up in front of grocery stores from early morning or wait for furniture for months”and with the failures of Russian reforms.
A copy of Zhdun at the top of the mountain resort Rosa Khutor. 2017 Nov.
The Igromania edition, in an article about Zhdun, spoke about the character’s influence on pop culture and on the audience of video game lovers.
In the wake of Zhdun’s popularity, toys, figurines, bean bags and large sculptures in the form of a meme character began to be sold on the Internet. It was also sold as a Valentine’s Day gift on February 23rd and March 8th.
In Chita, a copy of the sculpture was installed on the retro-site of the Park of the House of Officers. There is a similar copy at the top of the Russian mountain resort Rosa Khutor.
In July 2017, it became known that the Russian company CD Land had bought the rights to use the Zhdun brand from Margrit van Brevort. CD Land plans to resell the brand to other companies that will produce toys, dishes and stationery with Zhdun. It is also planned to shoot an animated series with this hero and a blog on his behalf.
On August 28, 2018, CD Land sued Megafon for 8.6 million rubles for illegal use of Zhdun’s image.
Zhdun in popular culture
For the first time in Russian literature, „waiting” appears in Nathan Dubovitsky’s gestalt novel „Ultranormality” in 2017. Later, the meme was used by many authors in prose and poetry.
According to the widespread version, the former aide to the President of the Russian Federation Vladislav Surkov writes under this pseudonym.
