The commission of experts of the Municipality of Milan which has the task of evaluating the installation of works of art in public spaces has given a negative opinion to the placement in Piazza Duse, in the Porta Venezia area, of a bronze statue representing motherhood, with a woman breastfeeding her baby, because it would not represent values that can be shared by all citizens. A decision that has sparked some controversy and doubts and which the mayor Giuseppe Sala does not agree with.
“There is a commission that does not answer to me but I will ask the commission itself to re-examine the issue – he explained on the sidelines of the Art Week presentation -, at least listening to my opinion because I don’t think it offends any sensibilities”.
“I don’t want to go into the logic of placement on one side or the other, I leave it to the culture councilor Tommaso Sacchi to make proposals, I don’t know if it’s the right placement, if there are other ideas – concluded Sala -. But I will ask the commission to review, it seems a bit of a stretch to argue that it does not respond to a universal sensitivity.”
“It doesn’t seem to me that it is a work that could in any way give rise to something offensive towards anyone” Sacchi himself then added. “I do not take the place of an evaluation that has been made – continued the councilor – but we saw the work together with the mayor and I know the artist, it was not new. It is a female figure breastfeeding, we will evaluate how give a place to this work. On my part and on the administration’s part, there is no desire to offend or diminish what is a generous proposal, in memory of an artist who we know and will evaluate with great attention”.
For the PD city councilors Alice Arienta and Luca Costamagna “motherhood as a choice of love and freedom is an asset to be protected and valorised. It is not by erasing the figure of motherhood that women are helped”.
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