Sculptor's human exhibit wins place on Trafalgar Square plinth

Arts News

Jun 23, 2008, 15:30 GMT

London - Thousands of ordinary citizens will be given the chance to become an art work for an hour by standing still on a plinth on Trafalgar Square in the heart of London, according to a decision announced Monday. An artists' competition for rotating 'exhibitions' on top of the fourth plinth was won by leading British sculptor Antony Gormley, best known for his giant Angel of the North steel sculpture in Gateshead, northern England. In spring next year, for a total of 100 days, about 2,400 people will be able to volunteer to stand on the plinth for an hour at a time to fill Gormley's artistic idea with life. 'Through elevation on to the plinth and removal from common ground, the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol and allows us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary society,' Gormley said about his project, which he has named One And Other. Talking about how people would get on to the plinth, Gormley said: 'We presented a hydraulic stair but I'm rather favouring a crane so there is a moment of theatre every hour.' There would, he expected, be 'a rather nice moment' where the person leaving and the person arriving would meet each other. The most important thing for him was, however, that a square historically reserved for military heroes had become a 'place of ethnic celebration.' After Gormley, A Ship In A Bottle - a modern replica of Admiral Nelson's ship, HMS Victory, made by British artist Yinka Shonibara - will adorn the plinth, gazed upon by the admiral's tall statue just across the square.

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Sculptor's human exhibit wins place on Trafalgar Square plinth

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