Ambivalent Identity | April 2024 | Bologna, Italy

A portrait—a bust—of a woman, inspired by the portrait of Saint Laura Montoya, a Catholic sister from Colombia (1874-1949). She worked with Indigenous people living deep in the jungle, with the poor, and with the most marginalized people in society. I came across her portrait by chance while randomly searching for prominent and interesting women in the history of Bologna. She drew my attention, especially since I was looking for a moral peace-seeking person to portray. During the sculpting process, the portrait acquired some of my own features as well.
I came to Bologna during turbulent times for my country, Israel. The events that occurred on the 7th of October and since challenged my opinions, which I question repeatedly. This new reality shattered my knowledge and understanding of some of the core moral ideas I live by.
Antony Gormley (sculptor, b. 1950) says in an interview: "Art belongs in the world. Art is about life and it needs to be in life. So I wanted to make work that I then test out what can this art do in the world. How will collective life respond to this still object, placed in the stream of life… "
Unlike Gormley, I hardly ever see the public response to the sculptures I place in the streets. I leave them and go. Usually, they disappear after a day or two (depending on the country). Why do I so willingly "lose" my sculptures?  Actually I like leaving them in the streets. This gives them freedom from rigid definitions and frameworks. I place the sculptures in different locations and am fascinated to see how they are immediately changed. The different surroundings give each sculpture a new context to relate to — whether it is in front of a church, in a public garden, a street with fancy restaurants and museums, or a side corner. I infuse them with my ideas, my reasons for creating them, and then I part with them. By scattering the sculptures in the public sphere, I "free" them from my line of thought and my ideas.
I exercise parting from something that was so dear and important to me for a while, an object of self-identification, and by doing so I free myself from its three-dimensional burden. 

​

The project was created in DumBO – Multifunctional Urban District of Bologna in collaboration with Ofer Grunwald