It's not a metaphor, it's not an artistic provocation, it's not even a protest.
It is a man urinating on the statues of Costantino Nivola, under the Regional Council on Via Roma in Cagliari.
The photograph captures the exact moment in which incivility becomes a public gesture, almost normal and distracted.
It happened right in the city center, in front of one of the symbolic places of Sardinian politics.
The works of Nivola—an internationally renowned artist, one of the few Sardinians capable of translating their homeland into the language of modern art—become an improvised urinal.
And so the photographed scene becomes news. And suddenly it's no longer just a prank, nor just an obscene act: it's an uncomfortable mirror of how we treat what should represent us . Public art reduced to an urban backdrop, invisible like any other wall.
Until the security guards of the Sardinian Legislative Assembly intervened and forced the uncivilized man to clean everything up. The Regional Council building and the square housing the Nivola statues are constantly monitored and controlled by security personnel, who intervene daily to prevent and address incidents of degradation, which unfortunately are increasingly frequent at night and at dawn.
"The security staff," the Regional Council announced, "intervened immediately, removing the person caught relieving themselves in front of one of the Nivola statues. The intervention was therefore timely and effective, confirming the constant attention paid to the protection and safeguarding of public property and the artistic heritage present on the Council premises."
