A row has erupted over plans for large statues of a Roman god and goddess in a Spanish city, which critics say would look more at home in a comic book than in a historic port.
The plans to erect an 11-metre sculpture depicting Neptune and a 5-metre one of Venus at the gates of Malaga’s central port have prompted fierce opposition from the city’s academy of fine art and citizens who have launched a campaign against it.
The bronze works are due to be installed on three-metre pedestals at the main pedestrian entrance to the Puerto de Málaga, a short walk from the historic centre and main shopping artery in the southern Spanish city. Two lions are to be placed at their feet.
The works have been made by Ginés Serrán and will remain in place for at least 25 years under an agreement with the port authority.
Ginés Serrán’s sculptures of Neptune and Venus are due to be displayed on plinths in Malaga
GINÉS SERRÁN-PAGÁN
But the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Telmo, one of Malaga’s most respected cultural institutions, has issued an unusually blunt public statement condemning the project. It described the sculptures as “pretentious and grandiloquent” with an “unmistakably kitsch appeal”, adding that they were “more typical of superhero comics from the Marvel universe” than of a historic Mediterranean port.
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Rosario Camacho, the academy chairwoman, told the local newspaper, El Pais: “When we saw them starting to put up the pedestals, we began to wonder what they were going to do there. And when we found out about the project we decided to issue the statement.” The sculptures create a visual and physical barrier between the historic centre and the sea, she added.
Architects, artists and academics have added their voices to the criticism. A citizen-led signature campaign against the plans has also begun.
The pedestals where the statues are due to be displayed
The city’s mayor, Francisco de la Torre, said: “It is a debatable issue and it is in a very visible location.” He added that the possibility of treating the installation as a “short-term temporary exhibition” should be considered.
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Serrán rejected the criticism, saying he feels personally targeted. “I don’t know why this woman [Camacho], for reasons we don’t know — personal or otherwise — began to defame, insult and attack me as an artist,” he said. “There is always someone who tries to bring down a project of this kind, so colossal in time, money and dimensions.”
The sculptor said the cost of the installation — €70,000 — was covered by the port authority and that he had personally paid for the sculptures, which he values at €3 million. They were constructed to his design in China.
The bronze sculpture of Neptune with a fishing net will be installed in the Spanish port city
GINÉS SERRÁN-PAGÁN
Serrán said the figures were conceived with local references in mind, depicting Neptune with a fishing net to evoke Málaga’s maritime tradition and Venus holding a sun as a nod to the Costa del Sol. He argued that the sculptures should be installed as soon as possible so that residents can “get used to them”, insisting that, over time, they will become “an icon of the city”.
However, Jesús Marín, the academy’s dean, said the decision to install the sculptures had been taken without proper consultation from cultural institutions or specialist experts. He described the handling of the project as “very frivolous” and that the artistic quality of the works themselves was “debatable”. The central problem, he added, lay in the prominence of the site.