Friday, October 4, 2013

Firenze: The artistry of Clet

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:






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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