he extended middle finger, pointed towards the financial gurus
image © designboom
the most recent and much discussed artwork by maurizio cattelan arrived
today in milan’s piazza affari,
in front of the italian stock exchange building.
the controversial monument is made in marble, about 4 meters high and
has been allocated on a base that brings the sculpture to a
total height of
11 meters.
during the making process, the famed italian artist changed the title
from ‘omnia munda mundis’ – literally meaning
‘to the pure [men], all
things [are] pure’, a latin sentence that has entered a relatively
common usage in many countries – to ‘L.O.V. E.’
‘officially it’s name is L.O.V. E. – so it stands for love – but
everyone
can read between the lines and take away the message they see for
themselves.
conceived especially for milan, all the fingers of the hand are cut off,
except for the middle one,
final mockery of all ‘isms’
- ‘against ideology’.
the public monument was donated to milan but immediately refused by the
city’s administrators.
the sculpture represents also the semantic turnover of the
leader’s assertive gesture and of power, codified by the classical
monument.
a dialogue with the past: indeed,
the artist is convinced that he has actually proposed a conservative
and traditional work…
an opinion which the top leaders of palazzo marino (the city’s town
house)
do not agree with.