Occhio destro occhio sinistro

2011
Marmo di Carrara;
cm 101x80x2, cm 90x80x2

Occhio destro occhio sinistro (2011), is composed of two marble slabs that are exactly the same size as those set up in Piazza Fontana to commemorate the death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, which occurred in mysterious circumstances while he was being interrogated about the bombing of 12 December 1969. The first of the two original plaques, laid in the Seventies by Milanese students and democrats, bears the phrase “Giuseppe Pinelli, railway worker and anarchist, an innocent man killed”. The second, placed in 2006 by the Albertini administration, reads: “To Giuseppe Pinelli, railway worker and anarchist, an innocent man who died tragically”. Taking this inconsistency as his starting point, Arena carved only the conflicting phrases – “ucciso innocente” (innocent man killed) and “innocente morto tragicamente” (innocent man who died tragically) – on the plaques, placing them so they are at eye level. The difference of just a few words encapsulates the full distance separating two divergent political visions and the uncertainty over an event that has yet to be clarified.