Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2023 July 7

= July 7 =

Jean-Claude Van Damme monument in Vandam, Azerbaijan
Does anyone know the actual story behind how this came to be a thing? I've read that someone on the town's council commissioned "a statue to represent Vandam", or something like that and the sculptor misunderstood the instruction and made this bronze JCVD statue. Then the people responsible were then like "eh, we paid for it already, might as well put it somewhere". Iloveparrots (talk) 02:38, 7 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I cannot find a source stating who commissioned the statue. Reportedly, the idea for the statue came from a local resident (who has an Instagram account). The idea that the sculptor (Azad Əliyev) would have misunderstood the commission is already implausible, but that the town's council (in this case, the council of Qəbələ; Vəndam is a small village) would have given the sculptor carte blanche is beyond belief. I think JCVD himself, speaking Flemish, might call this story a broodjeaapverhaal. --Lambiam 11:02, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
 * According to The Brussels Times and Azerbaijan Travel International, the statue was put up as a tourist attraction based on a common joke within the village that the town is named after their native son Van Damme. He is not from the town. It is a joke. But, it is a joke they have used to try and increase tourism. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 14:27, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Please read more carefully. The Azerbaijan Travel page does refer to, as 97.82 puts it, "a common joke within the village", but as to the statue itself, both sources say only that it was probably or most likely inspired by the similarity of the two names. The Brussels Times page itself cites a message from the Azerbaijan Embassy to Belgium, which can be found using the Wayback Machine here, but according to Google Translate, the embassy also says only that the statue was probably inspired by the similarity of the names. So we still don't actually know what the town council or the sculptor was thinking. But if the town council of Batman, Turkey, or of Batman, Iran, ever wants to commission a monument that American tourists will talk about, I have a suggestion for them... --142.112.221.43 (talk) 22:49, 7 July 2023 (UTC)
 * In 2008, the mayor of Batman, Turkey, issued a press release announcing the city would seek royalties from Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for their use of the name Batman. "There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us." One can only guess this was a publicity stunt. --Lambiam 13:09, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * They were certainly thinking money and they did it nicely according to the criteria of the day. The place is exactly like any place I know, same cars, same trees, same landscape and even the same leaves (well I'm not a botanist) lie on the ground so the idea of travelling through the area would be leaving my touristic encephalogram absolutely flat without the adjunction of some little spice. Beside money there may have been a pinch of Steppenwolf ("Don't be such an ass, Sam", could have been considered usefull for straightening the ideas about for who's only driving through and heading towards Gobi ). So the Village, but more to it ... --Askedonty (talk) 09:09, 8 July 2023 (UTC)
 * How do you even know the statue was commissioned by the town council? This source writes, "Initially, the statue was erected in October [2019] but was then taken away by the local authorities." That does not sound to me like the statue was commissioned by the town council. Perhaps it was a private initiative of local resident Shakir Eminbeyli and sculptor Azad Aliyev. According to Eminbeyli, speaking in November 2019 (and capable of doing a split himself), the statue will be placed on his personal territory. --Lambiam 12:59, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

The Vandam article has no mention of any of this - should it? And what is with the funny upside down e? --SGBailey (talk) 20:45, 11 July 2023 (UTC)


 * It is mentioned in, so I guess it could be included, although it is of marginal interest; it is not even mentioned in the Azerbaijani Wikipedia. For the ⟨e⟩, see Azerbaijani Latin alphabet. It represents the phoneme Near-open front unrounded vowel. --Lambiam 02:14, 14 July 2023 (UTC)