Public art: eggs and flip flops (thongs)

French artist, Elisa Fantozzi, is exhibiting “public art” in Batumi, Georgia’s booming resort on the Black Sea. She joins other French artists, Jean Dupuy (his “WHERE” sculpture was erected on Batumi Boulevard in 2010) and Emile Laugier (his “L’Arobase” snail sculpture was installed in 2011). The pieces form part of the public arts project of Dot Comma art studio. Dot Comma’s curator, Guela Tsouladze, is a Paris-based artist of Georgian-French heritage whose own sculpture, “Topsy Turvy” – a man with a red heart, appears in Batumi.

I first encountered Elisa Fantozzi’s small-sized “Sneakers on Eggs” piece in 2011 when I was in Georgia, and she was exhibiting her work along with European artists in Tbilisi’s Europe House. She has taken her “eggs” concept and reproduced it on a much larger scale for an outside sculpture in Batumi. Fantozzi is from the port city of Sete, in France, where she created “Perilleusement votre” in her studio and shipped it to Batumi where it was assembled in November 2011.

Her “Perilleusement votre” – two green flip flops (thongs to Australian readers) on top of gigantic eggs – commissioned by Batumi’s Mayor’s Office, now resides outside the newly constructed Radisson Hotel on Batumi’s foreshore. Suitably depicting the lifestyle of the seaside city, the giant flip flop, made of plastic and resin, stands 5.5 metres (18 feet) high and 2.3 metres (7.5 feet) long and can be seen from many high rise buildings in the area. Her concept behind the sculpture is “Life is as fragile as stepping on eggs.”

Tsouladze said that the public art aims to surprise visitors with images and pieces that are joyful and child-like, infusing delight into public spaces.

(Tabula, January 12, 2012: http://en.tabula.ge)

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