Commisionned for Nuit Blanche, Paris 2018.
Ugo Schiavi’s sculptures are presented as fragments of bodies eroded by time and destined for future archeologists. The artist molds and grafts contemporary elements to the glorious and petrified statuary in order to weave together collective memory and speculative futures. Commissioned and exhibited by Nuit Blanche 2018 in Paris, Soulevement (Marianne) was part of a monumental sculptural ensemble Ugo Schiavi created for the parvis of the Hôtel de Ville. The artist appropriated the bronze sculpture Le Triomphe de la République, located on the Place de la Nation and, particularly, the allegory entitled Le Génie de la Liberté along with the figure of Marianne (Republic) erected at its peak. Depicted as a fallen, reversed fragment lying on the ground, the figure simultaneously evokes uprising and collapse. Despite this neutralized depiction, the sculpture seems animated through its fragmented, incomplete aspect, outlining the manner in which reality is constructed through overlapping and anachronisms, in a search towards new worlds, at once insurrectional and militant against a backdrop of ruins.