Maurizio Cattelan - 'L.O.V.E.'

Te koop aangeboden 1:28 kopie van Maurizio Cattelan's 'L.O.V.E.' sculpture in Piazza Affari, Milan, Italië, geïnstalleerd in 2010 geproduceerd in beton.

DE aankoop is verpakt in de originele verpakking (is voor het eerst geopend om de foto’s voor deze advertentie te maken).

Markering in de onderzijde aangebracht
afmetingen: 15x15x40cm

1:28 scale reproduction of Maurizio Cattelan's 'L.O.V.E.' sculpture in Piazza Affari, Milan, Italy, installed in 2010. Made by concrete.

Purchase includes original packaging.

Markings: stamped to underside

Dimensions: 15x15x40cm


Introduction
If you stroll into Milan’s Piazza degli Affari, you are bound to feast your eyes on a shocking sight: A 4 to 5 meters high marble sculpture of a veiny hand giving its beholders the middle finger. 

The middle finger is placed on a 7 m base. The display of the fascist salute has a twist though, all the other fingers have been chopped off to leave the middle finger, considered an obscene, offensive gesture. 

The sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan is right in front of the fascist-styled Palazzo Mezzanotte, the Italian stock exchange building. To many people, it seems to flip it off.

The meaning of L.O.V.E.

While you may think this is the case, there is more than meets the eye. 

The sculpture’s name, L.O.V.E. is officially an acronym standing for liberta, odio, vendetta, and eternita, translated to ‘freedom, hate, revenge, and eternity.’ 

Therefore while at first glance the hand flips you (and the stock exchange building,) a closer look shows you the severed fingers, after which the initial fascist salute is reduced to a middle finger, an attack on fascism. 

However, it does elicit a lot of giggles from people visiting Milan who pose for photos with it.
Location Piazza



The story behind it

While Maurizio has never spilled the tea on the actual meaning of the sculpture, maintaining that one can take away whatever meaning they get from it, it is however not lost on art enthusiasts that the sculpture created in 2010 was commissioned after 2008 when the economic crisis struck the whole of Europe and Italy in particular. 

One can only imagine that it sends a giant ‘f..ck you’ to the financial world at Milan’s Piazza delgi Affari. Italy’s financial sector is believed to have contributed to the recession during which Italy sank into a financial crisis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy3zOTCSPHc