Aleš Župevc: The Man Who Made the Melania Sculpture

Brad Downey is the name associated with the wooden sculpture of Melanie Trump that appeared in Sevnica earlier this year, to much interest and amusement from around the world, with the US-born Berlin-based artist going for a naïve, primitive approach in his portrayal of the town’s most famous daughter. But Mr Downey did not create the work himself, with his own hands, and instead commissioned it from a local carpenter and artist, the self-taught and extremely hard-working Aleš “Maxi” Župevc. The following video, which seems to have been published by Downey, takes a look at the life of the man behind the story, and life in rural Slovenia.