Farewell to Evaristo Lazzoni, the sculptor-poet who made the Cliff of Love

He has passed away in Valle d’Aosta, at the age age 83, sculptor Evaristo Lazzoni, famous on the Apuan Riviera for shaping, from 2009 onward, the Scogliera dell’Amore(Cliffs of Love), a cliff on the Marina di Massa waterfront where almost all the rocks are carved with figures, poems and phrases that refer to the feeling oflove, as well as with portraits of women Lazzoni had known throughout his life and with phrases urging visitors to respect the environment.

A former quarryman, after retiring he had begun to frequent the cliffs of the square in front of the former Torino colony to clean them of garbage and thus began to make his sculptures directly on the rocks. Thus, over the years, a place in the city that was abandoned (it is in fact located in a scarcely frequented area) began to populate and became a regular destination for couples.

Philosopher Telmo Pievani also spoke of Evaristo Lazzoni in his 2020 book Il maschio è inutile: “They call him the Don Quixote armed with a chisel. He has the sun-tanned skin and strong hands of someone who fears neither fatigue nor his past [...]. His is a sort of equal exchange with the municipality: he has offered to clean up the area, arranging the rocks to make them hospitable to bathers and mounting at his own expense a bike rack and a much-appreciated iron ladder for diving; as a tacit reward he has obtained the opportunity to carve phrases of love.”

A constant presence, he was often seen on the cliff with his chisel carving new phrases or touching up older works. In 2018 he was also featured in a short film dedicated to him, The Cliff of Love by Gianluigi Parpinel and Matilde Orrico, available on Vimeo.

“When Evaristo was 71 years old, he started carving messages of love almost every day for 9 years, leaving more than 150 writings and poems on the rock,” Cinzia Compalati, director of the Guadagnucci Museum in Massa, wrote on social media. “Evaristo liked it so much that this place in Marina di Massa was collectively renamed the Cliffs of Love. Evaristo has taken off this time but his emotional artwork remains here for us.”

Theof Love

Cliffs of Love

Cliff of Love

Farewell to Evaristo Lazzoni, the sculptor-poet who made the Cliff of Love

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