Sunday, October 10, 2010

Art at the stock market

Not sure what feng-shui enthusiasts or Hindu astrologers will think of this (I can only recall the big trouble the bull sculpture at Mumbai stock market went through because the bull was, it seems, in the wrong position) but this piece of art at the Milan stock market is just... well you have to see it:


The sculpture is the work of Maurizio Cattelan and it is named "L.O.V.E. Happy end?". You may not have noticed at first sight but it is not really a fist with an extended middle finger but a hand with no fingers left but that one.

The artwork, described as "metaphor of contemporaneity" by the author is only located at Piazza Affari, right in front of the fascist era building of the stock market, temporarily but it has been a success and the City Hall has decided to keep the sculpture there at least until October 24, because of huge popular pressure. 

In this case at least, I'd say that the people is not wrong at all: the sculpture is just right in front of the hyper-symmetric and inexpressive neoclassic fascist facade. It expresses a lot where there was no expression and makes you think also. I would dare say that, if it remains, it may soon become a tourist destination of some importance, shadowing the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty, though one has to admit that a little too strong for children (not so much for the middle finger but for the maimed ones).

Of course the statue has already a popular name that overshadows the original one: Vaffalculo, which in Italian means, naturally, fuck off.

Source: Ciudad Futura[es]

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