The Municipality of Prato and the Fondazione per le Arti Contemporanee in Toscana, in collaboration with Associazione Culturale Arte Continua, inaugurated on December 19, 2020, in Piazza del Duomo di Prato SHY a work by the British artist Antony Gormley. The sculpture, almost 4 meters tall and made with 3600 kg of cast iron, brings the materials and methods of the industrial revolution into an 18th-century square. Silent and motionless, SHY invites us to become aware of our own position, constantly moving through space and time, and reawakens the potential of art in the collective realm to celebrate everyday life.
In addition, a series of online meetings was organized and held, one per month, throughout the entire period the artwork was installed.
Gormley has always insisted that the silence and stillness of sculpture are its strongest qualities, allowing it to remain open to all our thoughts and feelings. In contrast with tradition, in which sculpture upholds and celebrates political and religious power, Gormley's project seeks to acknowledge and catalyze subjective experience. There is both empathy and humor in this work, through which the artist aims to reawaken the potential of art in the collective realm to celebrate everyday life.
Antony Gormley, born and based in London, has placed at the center of his artistic research the relationship between the body, as the seat of the mind, and the architectural or natural spaces with which it interacts. He pays particular attention to the placement of his art in accessible public spaces; in his work, we can find a strong focus on the environmental and social politics that characterize him.
"I want to make something that is assured in its presence as a landmark, but that upon examination connects with our inner self and engages with those quieter, more timid human emotions such as tenderness and vulnerability."
Antony Gormley, artist
Using a simple architectural structure, the sculpture aims to evoke shyness in its very exposure. Made with 3600 kg of cast iron, SHY brings the materials and methods of the industrial revolution into an 18th-century square. The artist uses scale to activate the space and invite those who engage with it to become aware of their own position, constantly moving through space and time.
The installation of Gormley's work bears witness to the Municipality of Prato’s ongoing commitment to updating its contemporary identity, thanks also to the proactive role played over the past thirty years by Centro Pecci for Contemporary Art. The Fondazione per le Arti Contemporanee in Toscana, which manages Centro Pecci, serves as a key reference point for collaboration between public and private entities operating in the Region and for promoting contemporary artistic production in Tuscany. This collaboration has developed within the context of growing environmental awareness. In recent years, Prato has implemented important policies for the recycling of industrial water, textile recycling, and energy saving. The city’s increasingly close relationship with European institutional partners has made Prato—known for innovation and the circular economy—a perfect setting for international artistic collaboration.
In this context, the involvement of Associazione Arte Continua naturally developed, as it was founded with the aim of connecting the international art community with local communities and of promoting the culture of circularity, reforestation, and the Green Deal as a driver of change and a frontier of social experimentation related to new models of livability in urban centers. Through this, it seeks to "recenter" the outskirts and industrial areas together with artists from the international art community.
