Updated March 14, 2024
Let's go back to our post on the Venus of Rags: in fact, after the fire that destroyed it in July 2023, the work was rebuilt, at the artist's expense, and reinstalled in the same Piazza Municipio where it was originally placed.
In a few months the Venus will be definitively welcomed into the church of San Pietro ad Aram in Forcella, and we will see if it will still be accessible to us. In the meantime we offer you some photos of the work and a text by Vincenzo Trione, curator of the exhibitions of the Municipality of Naples, who tells what happened in the last few months from July 2023 to today:
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Welcome back! We are always here, in our Naples, and we offer you a contemporary art experience that enhances a very central square with a work that has a long history behind it. We are talking about the Venus of rags by the master Michelangelo Pistoletto, who created the first version, just over a meter high, back in 1967 and who today has produced a new and monumental configuration of the work arranged in the center of a large square like Piazza Municipio, which is undergoing a profound reorganization in function of the completion of the Metro Line 1 station; however, the MUNICIPIO station has already been active for some years and allows those who move in a wheelchair to reach the square and the nearby Maschio Angioino.
Recalling that the statue reproduces the Venus with apple by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, it seems appropriate to report the words of the art historian adviser to Mayor Manfredi and curator of the exhibitions and installations of the Municipality of Naples Vincenzo Trione, words that are transcribed on the panel installed next to the statue: [...] It is one of the most iconic works of the twentieth century, created by the artist in different versions all over the world. Presented for the first time in 1967, this work is now being created in Naples on an unprecedented monumental scale. Antitheses, contrasts. On the one hand, a tribute to ancient statuary. On the other hand, an original reflection on consumption and materials. Solemnity and fragility. Individuality and multitude. The motionless beauty of the classical tradition and the transience of the contemporary era. [...] And these instead are the words of maestro Pistoletto: “My relationship with Naples is very long, I have already exhibited this Venus several times in Naples when it was 'smaller', now it has grown and is very large in Piazza Municipio. It has finally been considered an icon of our time and here it is presented in an iconic dimension also due to its location, in the center of the city. These rags would only be waste if there weren't Venus who comes from the history of beauty, of happiness, who regenerates these rags and which suddenly become a work of art, come back to life." So let's begin to see this work, installed last June 28, 2023 and at the moment without a removal forecast:
And we close with a shot that embraces Palazzo San Giacomo, the seat of the Municipality of Naples, and the Certosa di San Martino in the background:
P.S.: just to give an idea, here are two images taken in 2019 at the MADRE Museum of Pistoletto's Venus of rags in museum sculpture format:
and these other two taken in 2011, with a chromatic variant:
