NEW YORK: A Japanese artist is inviting the public to have an intimate view of explorer Christopher Columbus high above a busy intersection in Manhattan.
Tatzu Nishi is constructing a living room around the statue, which is perched on a six-story column in Columbus Circle, where five busy streets intersect. “Discovering Columbus” will run from Sept. 20 to Nov. 18.
Visitors will climb stairs to reach the living room — complete with couch, coffee table and lamps — where they will have a bird’s-eye view of the city and Central Park. An elevator will be available for those who can’t climb the stairs.
“Discovering Columbus” is Nishi’s first public art project in the United States. He’s internationally known for transforming historical monuments by surrounding them with domestic spaces. His other works include “Villa Victoria,” a temporary functioning hotel around a statue of Queen Victoria for the 2002 Liverpool Biennial.
But some Italian-Americans say his new project makes a mockery of Columbus.
“Encasing this majestic statue in a cocoon of conceptual art demeans the community and trivializes history,” said Rosario Iaconis, chairman of the Italic Institute of America, an education think tank.
The nonprofit Public Art Fund, which commissioned the work, said it received no objections from other Italian groups, including the larger National Italian American Foundation and the Italian counsel general in New York.
“What Nishi’s work is all about is drawing attention and giving access to the public to urban monuments, statues and architectural details that they wouldn’t normally have access to,” said Nicholas Baume, the fund’s director and chief curator.
The city is providing $1 million for the conservation of the monument — a restoration project that will make use of the scaffolding.
“’Discovering Columbus’ will give people from all over the world the opportunity to come face-to-face with a majestic work of art normally seen from afar while allowing for the restoration of the Columbus Monument,” said Frank Fusaro, president of the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which in 1987 raised $400,000 toward the monument’s renovation.
Visitors will be required to reserve passes in advance to climb to the living room.
Artist gives Columbus statue in NY a ‘living room’ feel
