{"id":6086,"date":"2012-11-14T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T06:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=6086"},"modified":"2015-02-01T18:46:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T17:46:47","slug":"public-art-paladino-santa-croce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/florence\/public-art-paladino-santa-croce\/","title":{"rendered":"Public art and the Piazza – Paladino in Santa Croce"},"content":{"rendered":"

The topic of this month’s Italy Roundtable is the piazza<\/strong>, and Florens 2012 handed me the perfect solution to what to write. On the occasion of the Biennial of cultural and environmental heritage, Fondazione Florens commissioned an impactful work of public art by the Italian contemporary artist Mimmo Paladino<\/strong>. Piazza Santa Croce became a magical place filled with art, an installation of marble blocks enhanced with symbols from Paladino’s visual repertoire in various media. It took a few days to put up, and it will take a few days to take down. It was present only from November 3-11, 2012.<\/p>\n

I want to reflect on the work itself, briefly, and on its use by the population and impact on the way we might think about the piazza in general, and piazza Santa Croce in particular.<\/p>\n

\"Paladino<\/p>\n

In the piazza, which has been filled with white pebbles that provide a snow-like effect on a grey day, there are huge blocks of marble, some cut and sanded down to a smooth finish, others in a rougher state. These gigantic blocks are laid out in the shape of a cross, but you can’t really understand this unless you see it from above, as in this film shot from a helicopter.<\/p>\n