CLEVELAND — A Slavic Village art installation designed to spark love and joy has been vandalized several times, now forcing the artist to remove it.
David Biro is a lifelong Clevelander and artist.
Biro said he often teams up with Midnight Art Club to create public displays of art.
"I think the reason that I stay in Cleveland is it's the place I love. It's what I call home. Superman's from Cleveland, so I got a connection to the whole Superman spirit, like save my city, you know? I'm gonna save my city through my creativity, right? That's what keeps me here in Cleveland, right? Cleveland needs to be saved, and I'm going to save it," Biro told me Tuesday night.
He does believe his art is truly making a difference and uniting his community.
His heroic efforts, though, have been physically chipped away at recently.
Biro's "Rooms to Let" installation sits at 5400 Broadway Avenue in Cleveland.
The display was originally designed for MGK Day.
"He's (MGK) a supporter of our artwork, and we had it in our warehouse. It was ready to go, and it was something that I think Slavic Village needed. I think every neighborhood needs a heart symbol that people can gather around and people can relate to. It is very uniform and uplifting," Biro said.
Through a partnership with the Slavic Village Development, the piece went up last year.
But in the last several months, Biro said the installation has been vandalized at least three times.
Side paneling had been ripped off, and holes had been punched through the display.
The giant hunk of construction now lies on its side due to the recent windstorm.
"When we had the 50, 60-mile-an-hour windstorms come through, wind was able to get up underneath inside the insulation and maybe tip it over," Biro said. "It was engineered to withstand 80-mile-an-hour winds, but that is with all the panels on."
Due to the pattern of vandalism, Biro said he's decided to disassemble it and remove it.
"We're just trying to connect with people that they deserve public art in their neighborhood, and we want to inspire people to build their own public art," Biro said. "Let's connect and let's build a better city."
To disassemble the art display and remove it will likely only take a few hours.
It'll then go into storage, and engineering will be reconfigured with the hope that it'll be back on display come summertime.
"Vandalism is part of the public art realm. It's something that's just naturally going to happen. I think it's just a part of bringing awareness and education to public art here in Cleveland. It doesn't affect us. We just keep going," Biro said.
