Giuseppe Veneziano in Pietrasanta - The Blue Banana, when art is also fun

Pietrasanta is a small town 100 km from Florence, near the sea and at the foot of the Apuan Alps, from where the marble, that all Tuscan monuments have been built with, has been extracted for centuries. It has always been frequented by many artists, in the past even by Michelangelo Buonarroti, who used to come here to buy marble for his works.

 

Jokingly called “Little Athens”, it is today a very active cultural and artistic center, home to museums, exhibitions and events that attract many people. This year it is populated with works by Giuseppe Veneziano due to his exhibition The Blue Banana, named after the main work, a giant blue banana located in the center of the town square.

 

Veneziano, born in Sicily in 1971, is considered one of the exponents of Italian New Pop Art. His sculptures, to which elements are added with the mash-up technique, often use characters from reality, news and fantasy, represented in unexpected, caricatured and new poses and attitudes. The artists plays down, ironizes, mocks but always with moderation. The images are flashy, surprising and make you smile. It's Pop Art.

 

The artworks, all made in the workshops and foundries of Pietrasanta:

 

The Blue Banana. It gives its name to the exhibition and represents, in the artist's intentions, the opulence of European society. The blue is taken from the Union flag and the banana is an icon of Andy Warhol's Pop Art, inspired by the famous album cover of Velvet Underground & Nico.

 

New Renaissance. At the entrance of the town there is an unmistakable self-portrait of the author. In his hand, a blue banana, symbol of the exhibition.

 

Spider-Man and Superwoman. They appear like a married couple, she wears a few sizes larger than usual, he takes his child for a walk in the stroller, a miniature version of himself.

 

The Piety of Michel Jackson. Acrylic on canvas. Michel Jackson dying in the arms of the Statue of Liberty. Two very well known symbols of the U.S. culture.

Behind the Beauty. Charlie Chaplin and the kid, hidden behind the Venus of Milo.

 

Blue Venus. A Triumphant Venus maneuvering the puppet Pinocchio.

 

Merda d’artista (Artist's shit). A man emerges from a water closet, paying homage to Piero Manzoni’s Conceptual Art work of 1961.

The murder of Crumpy. Snow White just shot Grumpy. Perhaps she was fed up of his constant complainings.

 

Skate Pope. A representation of a very modern skateboarding Pope Francesco.

Dantealighieri@virgilio.it. How would Dante Alighieri have written his Divine Comedy today? On a laptop, of course!