LONDON (AFP) — British sculptor Antony Gormley invited members of the public to submit themselves as works of art for a new ‘living monument’ in London’s Trafalgar Square this summer.
Over 100 days, 2,400 people selected at random will spend an hour on top of the plinth in the north-west corner, doing whatever they want and with whatever props they want — with the sole condition that they are up there alone.
There will be someone on the plinth day and night between July 6 and October 14, and the exhibit will be filmed and broadcast live on the Internet and in the National Portrait Gallery, located on the north side of the square.
“The idea is very simple. Through putting a person onto the plinth, the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol,” said Gormley, whose most famous work is the Angel of the North, a steel sculpture five storeys high in northeast England. “This elevation of everyday life to the position formerly occupied by monumental art allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary society.
“It’s about people coming together to do something extraordinary and unpredictable. It could be tragic but it could also be funny.” The fourth plinth was built in 1841 and intended for an equestrian statue but was left empty for lack of funds. A public art scheme has seen it occupied by different works since 1999. One of the most famous sculptures was Marc Quinn’s marble depiction of British artist Alison Lapper, who was born without arms and shortened legs and who posed for him while heavily pregnant.
Participants in Gormley’s project, “One And Other”, will be chosen at random from the list of applicants, with the only criteria being that half are men and half women, and Britain’s regions are represented proportionally.
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