Daverio against Fischer's work: more suitable for a landfill than Piazza della Signoria

Popular art critic Philippe Daverio has used some very harsh words against Big Clay #4 the work by Urs Fischer temporarily installed a few days ago in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria (which we also discussed in an editorial here). In an interview with Sandra Nistri of the newspaper La Nazione, the critic branded the large metal sculpture as “a totally uninfluential work,” which “has no legitimacy from the historical-artistic point of view,” and which “would be more suitable for a garbage dump than for one of the most beautiful squares in the world.” Again, for Daverio Big Clay #4 would be “a great commercial cunning.”

The critic also goes so far as to call for an intervention of the Court of Auditors to shed light on the economic aspects of the affair and to suggest the establishment of a commission composed of experts to evaluate proposals such as Big Clay #4 for Florence. The city, according to Daverio, should not have legitimized the operation: “I have never seen works like the one in Florence in the Grand Place in Brussels or in Madrid in the square in front of the Castle, in the Place de la Concorde in Paris or in Trafalgar Square in London. Do you think Merkel would like such a thing in front of the Parliament in Berlin? If the phenomenon is only local some questions need to be asked.”

Image: left, Philippe Daverio (ph. credit MITO SettembreMusica). Right, Big Clay #4 by Urs Fischer (ph. credit Finestre Sull’Arte).

Daverio against Fischer's work: more suitable for a landfill than Piazza della Signoria

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