“Venus of the Rags” has been praised for the visceral way it conveys the perils of waste. But not everyone loved the towering Venus and her mountain of trash.
Artistically speaking, the garbage is the point. The work is considered emblematic of the Arte Povera, or “poor art,” movement that thrived in the 1960s and ’70s. Embracing banal materials such as rocks, coal and rags as artistic media, Arte Povera artists sought to undermine the elitism and increasing commercialization of the art world. They created juxtapositions of past and present, as seen in Pistoletto’s work, to comment on the effects of modernization.
In art, “all forms, materials, ideas, and means are available and to be used,” Pistoletto said in 1967.Pistoletto created the first “Venus of the Rags” from rags he used to clean other artworks in his studio. Later, he made a gold-clad version, and in 1980, he turned the piece into a performance artwork, with a live model as the statue.
The fire is another episode in the sculpture’s decades-long evolution. While Manfredi, the mayor, said Pistoletto was angered and hurt by Wednesday’s incident, the artist also told him that it “must be interpreted as a moment of restarting.”
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