Costantino Nivola's horses are finally back in their place, positioned in the Wise Towers playground on the Upper West Side of New York. After being damaged in March two years ago, they were removed and finally underwent restoration .
The works are part of the artistic and social project created by the Orani artist and Richard Stein 60 years ago.
The concrete horses - inspired by the rocking horses of childhood - had been cleanly detached with blows with a mallet and then taken on a bulldozer to a warehouse. Not an act of vandalism but the implementation of a renewal plan for the area. A situation that had raised a wave of indignation in Sardinia, but not only, so much so that it was at the center of the attention of the Regional Council and then of Parliament.
Thanks to the Nivola Foundation, chaired by Giuliana Altea, the missing parts had been identified through a digital model. Now the horses are back in their place. «This is one of the rare cases – comments Altea – in which the intervention of a foundation that works for the protection of the cultural heritage of an artist achieves concrete results. Furthermore, the role of social networks proved to be fundamental as they loudly relaunched our appeal for what happened. This only confirms how much Nivola's memory is alive in so many people."
(Unioneonline/ss)
