October 5, 2021
The sculpture by Emanuele Stifano unveiled by former PM Giuseppe Conte. (Courtesy: Italia2TV)
The latest public
monument to draw a bitter outcry is a sexually suggestive statue of a female
field worker in Italy, which was accused of promoting sexism by politicians this
week.
The statue, which
depicts a young woman wearing a transparent dress, body-hugging dress, was
presented on Saturday in a ceremony attended by a mostly male audience,
including former prime minister Giuseppe
Conte, in the city of Sapri, in Italy’s southern Campania region. Created by
sculptor Emanuele Stifano, it is a tribute to the 19th-century poem “La
Spigolatrice di Sapri” (The Gleaner of Sapri) by Luigi Mercantini, which tells
the story of Carlo Pisacane, an early socialist thinker who led a failed
attempt to liberate the Bourbon Kingdom of Naples.
The poem describes an
attempted coup by insurgents in 1857 that was put down by locals. The statue
depicts a peasant woman from the poem.
Laura Boldrini, a former Speaker of the Italian Senate,
called it "an offense to women," adding "male chauvinism is one
of the evils of Italy." Monica Cirinna, a senator in Italy's
center-left Democratic Party, called for the statue's removal and deemed it
"a slap on the face of history and of women, who are still (treated as)
sexualized bodies."
Monica Cirinna, a senator in Italy's
center-left Democratic Party, called for the statue's removal and deemed it
"a slap on the face of history and of women, who are still (treated as)
sexualized bodies."
The town's mayor is defending the statue, which he said
was "made with skill and impeccable interpretation" by the artist
Emanuele Stifano.
Stifano defended the work, writing on Facebook that if he had been
afforded full creative liberty on its design, the statue would have been
“completely naked . . . simply because I am a lover of the human body.” He
added that it was “useless” to offer explanations for the artwork to critics
“who absolutely only want to see depravity.”
Prev | [CRITIQUE] 심현섭: 공공미술 10/ 동시대 공공미술의 공론화: 세라의 <기울어진 호> 논쟁(2) |
---|---|
Next | [NEWS] NFB Partners with MOCA Toronto to Produce Public Digital Artwork ‘Charity’ |
List |