[AlvinofDiaspar]

innsertnamehere:

Not a big fan of it personally - it's pretty banal as art goes.

AoD

 

[Xray_Crystal_Junkie]

It is no doubt best admired at night:

From here.

 

[junctionist]

Apparently art critics hate it, but people in general like it. It's one of the most recognizable works of public art in the city for better or for worse.

 

[Jeb]

The statue is nice--the pedestal is pretty bland, however.

 

[Northern Magus]

The statue is nice--the pedestal is pretty bland, however.

This. I've always loved the statue but despised its pedestal. I'd love to see a new one.

 

[Dan416]

I had to hit the back button to check the pedestal. I never even noticed it until now. But now that you guys mention it, it is pretty blah. The statue itself I've always liked a lot too.

 

[DavidJamesTO]

I'm amazed they didn't put it in storage. I'm envisioning a range of mishaps damaging it during construction.

 

[JasonParis]

Spacing did a write-up on the Monument to Multiculturalism a few years back...
http://spacing.ca/toronto/2009/03/20/monument-to-multiculturalism/

 

[Filip]

LOL the government of Italy had given the exact same statue to Sarajevo to show the multiculturalism of Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Little did they know what was about to happen a few years later...

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Apparently art critics hate it, but people in general like it. It's one of the most recognizable works of public art in the city for better or for worse.

OT: I can't say anything good about a good chunk of government sanctioned public art - the worst recent offender has got to be the Pillars of Justice - see http://edwardmichaelgeorge.blogspot.ca/2009/11/hideous-public-art-curmudgeons-ii.html

AoD

 

[Northern Magus]

From Francesco Perilli's wiki page:

La più famosa opera di Francesco Perilli è il Simbolo monumentale del multiculturalismo. Si tratta di una scultura bronzea che ritrae una figura umana in una sfera. La figura umana rappresenta l'uomo universale, infatti è raffigurata senza lineamenti per evitare riferimenti che possano associarla a una specifica etnia. La sfera rappresenta il globo terrestre, con otto meridiani tirati verso l'alto da colombe. Le colombe e l'uomo sono rappresentati nello sforzo di unire la sfera. L'obiettivo di questo progetto è quello di gemellare idealmente i continenti del mondo sotto il segno del multiculturalismo, collocando una copia del monumento nelle diverse parti del mondo. Ad oggi (2012) la scultura è già stata installata a Toronto in Canada, a Los Angeles in California, a Sarajevo in Bosnia-Erzegovina, a Changchun in Cina e a Buffalo City in Sudafrica.

Il progetto è sostenuto dal comune di Nereto, dall'Unione dei comuni della Val Vibrata, dalla Provincia di Teramo, dalla Regione Abruzzo, dal Consorzio Energeia.


Del Simbolo del multiculturalismo è visibile una copia di dimensioni ridotte all'ingresso del paese natale di Francesco Perilli, Nereto.

The most important part, translated, is:

The objective of this project is to ideally twin continents of the world under the banner of multiculturalism, by placing a copy of the monument in different parts of the world. To date (2012) sculpture has already been installed in Toronto, Canada, in Los Angeles, California, in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Changchun in China and Buffalo City in South Africa.

 

[ShonTron]

I've always liked it - as far as monuments to multiculturalism, tolerance, etc, it's tastefully understated and open.

Could do so much worse - check out Male/Female in front of Baltimore's main rail station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(Baltimore)#Male.2FFemale_sculpture_controversy

 

[DSC]

More on Union Station public art - this to commemorate the Walks and Gardens Trust. http://www.toronto.ca/union_station/walksandgardens.htm

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Update from the Star, cross-posted to the Shed thread:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...struction_where_are_we_three_years_later.html

AoD

 

[TOareaFan]

Update from the Star, cross-posted to the Shed thread:

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...struction_where_are_we_three_years_later.html

AoD

I guess there are multiple ways to look at things but I am a bit disappointed when the focus on this project is on the, short term, dislocation it presents as opposed to the sheer brilliance that is transforming one building with 4 major projects going on at the same time and managing to keep it fully open.......I suspect that in most jurisdictions the notion of closing the thing during all this work would would have been given more consideration....instead we have managed to build around, above and below a building with 200k people using it before during and after the work.....it stuns me every time I think about it.