Monopoli, the statue attracts tourists and onlookers. The mayor: “Don’t touch it”
A Monopoly the case of the “Mermaid“, the curvy statue positioned in the square to be named after Rita Levi Montalcini. The images of the new sculpture placed in the center of a small town square about forty kilometers from Bari they are bouncing from one part of the world to another: from England to India, from France to Japan. The reason: the dizzying curves – we read in the Corriere della Sera – modeled by the authors, who have nothing to do with the famous and delicate symbolic version of Copenhagen. And that I am now at the center of a furious debate Between for and against splashed far beyond the Apulian borders. As if that weren’t enough, the work stands out in an area used as a children’s playground, among a few mangy trees and a few carousels. Who knows, maybe it will be for this reason that from one day to the next the siren has sounded a green tarp even if the mayor, Angelo Anese, doesn’t want to hear about censorship. “It was a coincidence,” she assures.
“In reality – continues the mayor to Corriere – we had plans to inaugurate the square in a few days and someone has decided to cover it,” explains the mayor. “Art is artthe sculpture cannot be touched”, the mayor cuts short. And in the meantime i tourists they keep taking pictures. Beautiful or ugly, many put themselves patiently in coda to immortalize the work created by the students of the Luigi Russo art high school in Monopoli. The headmaster, Adolfo Marciano, is not shaken much by the controversy. “In reverse, art must be discussed”, he declares while not renouncing a jab aimed at those who turn up their noses: “It is paradoxical that someone feels upset” he declares. And speaking of the Junoesque features of the siren, he explains: “At least it’s distant from the idea of beauty to which they oblige us advertisements and magazines“.
Subscribe to the newsletter