By Giulia Segreti
ROME (Reuters) – A giant open-air art installation by Italian contemporary artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, destroyed in an arson attack in July in Naples, will be given new life in the city, local authorities said on Friday.
The new version of the “Venus of the Rags” will be unveiled in January and set up again in Piazza del Municipio, a monumental square in the heart of the southern Italian city, for four months.
It will absorb what was left from the fire of the original artwork, art critic Vincenzo Trione explained, “to show that it is possible to rise from the ashes, not only metaphorically”.
The new version will be made of fire-proof material.
“Replacing it is not only about aesthetics but is also a political gesture that shows that we will not stop,” Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi told a news conference.
The piece of art was a 10 metre-tall (32.81 ft) sculpture of the goddess of love, beauty and fertility, turned backwards and facing into a pile of rags.
The original “Venus of the Rags” was created in 1967 and various versions are on display in museums across Europe, including the Tate Gallery in Liverpool, northern England.
“It’s an extraordinary occasion for me. I would have never thought in 1967 that I would find myself once again immersed in this piece of art,” Pistoletto said, adding that “we must now heal (Venus)”.
The installation is meant to convey the juxtaposition between eternal beauty, represented by Venus, and modern society’s social degradation and consumerism.
Pistoletto, 90, will entirely finance the new artwork, which will be permanently donated to Naples.
The money raised through a crowd-funding effort launched after the fire will be used to finance projects by non-profit organisations supporting people with disabilities and female prisoners.
(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Keith Weir and Tomasz Janowski)
