CARRARA. Yesterday was a bitter dawn for the people of Carrara, one of those in which – having left the house and still a little numb from the night – we see something that is really wrong and we feel disgusted. And, immediately afterwards, we also feel the embarrassment: for that civic sense that perhaps we have, which we would all hope was widespread, but which isn’t or isn’t widespread enough.
The fact
Well, during the night, a sculpture of the White Carrara was targeted by vandals, the demonstration-event spread across squares and streets that has animated the city center for eight summers, which celebrates Italian design but also indigenous artisan and artistic excellence, and which will keep residents and tourists company until September 29th. The sculpture was “scarred” a few hours after the ribbon cutting of the eighth edition which has the artistic direction of Domenico Raimondi and is entitled Design is back: the veil of the event was lifted at 7pm on Friday – with great participation and enthusiasm by Carrara residents and visitors – and yesterday morning the crime was there for all to see.
Sculpture
The damaged work is in the “living room” of Carrara, in Piazza Alberica. It’s called Anna G, it was created in 2014 by the designer Alessandro Mendini, and exhibited thanks to the stone company Sagevan. It represents a corkscrew. It is the marble version of a project that was created by Mendini for the first time in 1994 for the well-known Italian design brand Alessi: it is “an ironic homage to a real woman – we read on the Alessi website – the whose smiley face has become a figure over the years cult, generating a rich family of objects for the table and the kitchen”, and since 1994 it has been among the best-known and most identifying objects of the brand in the Alessi Encyclopedia. The two arms of the corkscrew have been broken from the marble version: and the figure is now “crippled” on both sides.
The investigations
As soon as the news spread and reached the Palazzo Civico in the early hours of the morning, the local police began to view the footage from the cameras: in Piazza Alberica there are electronic eyes for public safety and each work is “under recording” . It cannot therefore be ruled out that the person responsible or those responsible could be discovered. According to what emerges, the sculpture would have been vandalized – but the conditional is a must – at two different times because there are photos posted on FaceBook that “immortalize” the female corkscrew figure even with only one broken arm.
Comments
The web has collected all the revulsion and bitterness of many Carrara residents for the gesture: on the Facebook page RivogliAmo Carrara, in particular. «It’s not possible», «I don’t want to believe it», «Only dismay and sadness» – we read among the comments – «What indecency», «Shame». «Disheartening and demoralizing – writes for example the accountant Giancarlo Casani, former president of the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara – Not to be believed and not accepted. There is evidently no limit to stupidity and barbarism.” And, again, there are those who appeal to the police to monitor the square at night. And those who conclude: «The cameras will have recorded everything and I hope that those responsible will be punished severely».
