The images of the fire that broke out at the first light of dawn, which destroyed the Venus of the Rags by Michelangelo Pistoletto in Piazza Municipio in Naples: the causes of the fire are being investigated, the social tender hypothesis emerges.
The burning of Pistoletto’s work of art
At first light on Wednesday July 12, the Venus of the Rags, the work of Michelangelo Pistoletto which was installed at the end of last June in Town Hall square. Around 5.30 in the morning, the artistic installation was engulfed in flames, from which a thick cloud of black smoke rose and silhouetted over a large part of the city centre: several fire brigade teams intervened on the spot, extinguished the fire, of a malicious nature. The area has been cordoned off for the usual surveys.
The entire work, i.e. the rags and the Venus (it was obviously a reproduction of plastic material) were totally incinerated. Only the metal grate underneath resisted.
In the hours immediately following the events, many Neapolitans placed flowers and tickets in the area of the stake, bearing witness to the profound emotional impact that the fire at the building had on those who love art.
Because the fire of Pistoletto’s Venere degli Stracci is the only possible epilogue for the opera in Naples
The cause of the fire is being investigated
The fire is arson but it will be the findings of the firefighters and the police, in the next few hours, to determine the exact causes, at the moment no hypothesis is excluded. The investigators are examining the images of the video surveillance cameras of the square to acquire useful elements for the investigation. In the afternoon, Fanpage.it learned that the profile of a suspect is being examined.
It is not excluded that, as now happens every year for the Christmas tree, it may have been a gang of kids who acted; the area was cordoned off and placed under seizure for the investigation of the case. Some jars would have been found next to the statue, now being investigated.
According to Michelangelo Pistoletto Foundationwho spoke together with the mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi in front of the remains of the work, in the last few days a sort of competition had arisen on social networks between gangs of kids over who would be the first to set fire to the installation by the artist from Biella.
The meaning of Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags
Of the work, conceived by Pistoletto at the end of the 1960s, there are various versionsincluding one exhibited at the Madre Museum, the contemporary art museum located in the heart of Naples.
The sculpture installed in piazza Municipio was a reproduction of the “Venus with apple” by Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen; this is flanked by rags, clothes placed in bulk, which symbolize the contrast between classical beauty and the disorder of modern life.
The reactions to the burning of the Venus of the Rags
«I am very sorry because I am an admirer of the artist Pistoletto. But then we need to understand what happened, the investigators will tell us this ». The Minister of Culture declares it Gennaro Sangiulianoechoed by the undersecretary and art critic Vittorio Sgarbi:
The real life of a dead work, a reproduction of an ancient idea, as always in Pistoletto a concept, is in the bonfire that made it burn suddenly and change from provocation to emotion. I am sure that being reproducible, as it was reproduced, Pistoletto must have been exalted in his heart to see it burn and therefore live.
They will be sought out, chased, punished, because they don’t know what they’re doing. But we will have to make them known and meet Pistoletto so that they are forgiven by understanding the cathartic sense of their action.
The Archbishop of Naples, Don Mimmo Battagliaexpresses «displeasure and bewilderment for an act that harms the image of the city and its people and offers a distorted narration of what is the authentic genius of the Neapolitans who over the centuries have shown themselves capable of welcoming, enhancing, protecting , to spread art in all its forms, beyond personal tastes and evaluations».
Harder in his position is the president of the Campania Region, Vincent DeLuca:
The act committed against Pistoletto’s work is a serious act and we hope that responsibilities will be clarified as soon as possible. And it is the confirmation, in any case, that ever greater rigor is needed against acts of vandalism, outrage and disfigurement, which target cultural and artistic assets.