A work by the late Italian designer Gaetano Pesceinstalled in the center of Naples, is generating controversy and a multitude of ironic comments due to its phallic shape, although it represents a recreation of the dress of ‘Pulcinella’, a mythological character in the city’s culture.
You’re a big deal (You are a big thing) is the title of this 12-meter-high sculpture by the artist who died on April 4 in New York and which was inaugurated last night in the central Municipio square in Naples, where it will remain until December 19.
Tourists and neighbors stop curious to see the work and photograph it, while social networks have been flooded with comments full of irony and humor alluding to the phallic shape, as well as references to the author’s surname ‘Pesce’, which in Neapolitan means penis .
The work, a long colored tube crowned with a round white cloth, is a modern recreation of the dress of ‘Pulcinella’, a comic character from the Neapolitan theater who wears the city’s traditional mask and dresses in a wide white shirt and a hat of the same color.
“Initially when I saw her I thought what others also thought. I think it is a thought that has reached everyone and it is a very Neapolitan thought. We should take it as a good omen,” said the mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredito the media at the inauguration.
The councilor defended the work, claiming that “it is a stylized representation of the relationship between Pulcinella and the hearts of Neapolitans” and that “contemporary art should provoke discussion, debate is a sign of a living city.”
Pesce’s work in Plaza Municipio is completed with another sculpture of two hearts pierced by an arrow and both pieces are illuminated internally at night.
The price of this installation, which has also generated controversy, amounts to around 180,000 euros, of which 160,000 has been paid by the Campania region, whose capital is Naples, through a fund for cultural promotion in its cities.
This is not the first controversial sculpture to be installed in Plaza Municipio, such as the Venus of the rags of Michelangelo Pistolettowhich previously occupied the place of ‘Pulcinella’, which was made up of a mountain of textiles on which a white ‘Venus’ rested and which was also highly criticized.
Source: EFE. Photos: REUTERS/Ciro De Luca