A new mermaid statue erected in the town square of a small village in Puglia is causing quite a stir. The statue was created by students at the Luigi Rosso art school in Monopoli as a part of a $386,000 (€350,000) redevelopment of the area. The statue was placed near a children's playground.
The headteacher of the Luigi Rosso art school, Adolfo Marciano stated, “The students got together and came up with the idea of a mermaid,” saying that the mermaid was a “tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy.” In a further statement, “You see adverts on television with very thin models, but the mermaid is like a tribute to the great majority of curvy women, especially in our country. It would have been very bad if we had represented a woman who was extremely skinny.”
According to Marciano, the council overseeing the commissioned artwork approved the scale of the statue and allowed it to be placed in the square. The mayor of Monopoli commissioned the students to create multiple pieces that would be placed throughout the town with the idea to have art by the sea.
The statue has yet to be officially unveiled to the public but social media is already buzzing about the disgust and outrage.
One Facebook user posted and captioned that the statue is “very ugly and vulgar, seeing that the only known little mermaid (Amsterdam) doesn’t have hair but only the fin - it’s a shame it could have been more graceful." While others have said it’s "a sickening image of a woman."
Female statues in other parts of Italy have caused similar controversy. In 2021, a bronze statue portraying a woman in a transparent dress in the Campania town of Sapri sparked a sexism debate. Created by sculptor Emanuele Stifano, the statue was intended to be a tribute to La Spigolatrice di Sapri (The Gleaner of Sapri), written by the poet Luigi Mercantini in 1857. The statue was branded “an offense to women”.
However, there are those who do not oppose the statue. One commenter said, "Monopoli in all the newspapers for a mermaid, that's us!" Another poster said, “It’s a shame as the art students deserve to be praised instead of criticized.” Actress Tiziana Schiavarelli from the nearby town of Bari commented on the statue saying, “it just amuses me a lot. Who knows, maybe it will become a tourist attraction?"
AJ Forrisi
Assistant Editor for America Domani, AJ Forrisi is a Brooklyn-based writer and photographer. His work focuses on food, travel, sports, landscapes, and urban scenes. You can find him on Instagram @aj.photo.works.