In the Place Royale fountain, the Loire River is represented by a woman pouring water out of two vases. The tributaries are symbolized by two statues of women and two statues of men, both semi-reclined and also pouring out water. Ugo Schiavi was struck by the resemblance of one of these statues to that of Neptune, the central character of his piece.
Continuing his allegory of a shipwreck, Schiavi reveals this character – whom he had grown attached to, and who is now hidden under the hull of his boat – a few hundred meters further away, on the banks of the Loire, right next to the Passerelle Schoelcher footbridge.
Through a 3D copy of this character, Schiavi offers the public an enlarged polymer version of Neptune’s bust. The holes and gaps that fragment the work are the result of computer glitches that took place during the scan, which the artist chose to highlight.
Like a figurehead wrenched off of the impressive shipwreck on Place Royale, Neptune has been subjected to the forces of the natural elements and washed up here. He is the central figure of a script where mythology, interpretation, fiction and narration come together and form a dialogue.
Ugo Schiavi was born in 1987. He lives and works in Marseille. He is represented by Double V Gallery (Marseille) and The Pill Gallery (Istanbul).