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| Clet's sculpture, The Common Man, on Ponte alle Grazie : stepping off into the unknown? |
San Niccolo is known for its artist studios, and there's one in particular that's become very popular, featuring the works of the French artist, Clet Abraham. I walk by it every day on Via dell'Olmo. Clet has become most famous for altering the street signs in Florence by
adding removable stickers. Defacing public signs is illegal, and Clet
often has to pay fines for his art, but they've become a mainstay in the
Florence landscape and continue to pop up all over town.
Clet has also created a sculpture on the bridge
near my apartment, and it's illegal as well: he's paid a fine, and it's been
removed once, and will probably be removed again. Clet's comment:
"The Common Man statue is intended as a stimulus to take an important
and risky step. It represents one of those moments on one’s life in
which one needs to make a decision even not knowing its consequences
(the void below him is this unknowingness). So Uomo Comune decides to
take this step, and invites everyone to do it. The irony lays in being
part of this dangerous spectacle from the safe side of the railing. The
act is permanently frozen in limbo, being a sculpture that doesn’t move
and will never finish stepping out, and so will never know if his choice
was the right one or not – the only way for us to know is if we were to
try it ourselves.”
Here are a few of Clet's artworks that I've noticed in the past few weeks:
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| Clet's studio, Via Dell'Olmo 8r, San Niccolo |
For more info and photos, check out this link:
Street art in Florence: look at the traffic signs!
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