Marble quarries have their own David: it's the work of street artist Kobra

It was inaugurated on Sunday, July 23, in Carrara, the great work of Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra (São Paulo, 1976), among the most important in the world: a large and very colorful detail of Michelangelo’s David (i.e., the face and the left hand) decorating one of the walls of the Gioia quarry. The David thus returns, symbolically, to where he was born: to the marble quarries of Carrara. The work, which was already finished at the end of May, is of impressive dimensions, since it is eleven meters wide and ten meters high. David ’s face is furrowed by the colorful geometric shapes typical of the artist’s language, of which the work created for the quarries represents one of the few testimonies on Italian soil.

The work undoubtedly represented a challenge for the artist, and not only on a technical level (it is a mural created at an altitude of eight hundred meters, on the steep wall of a quarry), but also on the level of content, since Kobra had to deal with a solid tradition, with one of the most famous sculptures in the history of art (abused to the point of becoming a fetish), with the memory of the local community. But the public that flocked to the opening responded with interest to the Brazilian street artist’s David.

Now it will be a matter of enhancing the work: in fact, Kobra’s David is only accessible through a path that starts from the village of Bedizzano, one of the quarry towns at the foot of the Apuan Alps. Associations in the area are already thinking about how to make the large mural easily accessible to citizens and tourists: the cooperation of the quarry concessionaires will therefore be essential. Collaboration is also expected between the municipalities of Carrara and Massa (the authorities of both were present at the inauguration): the work, in fact, is located in an area on the border between the two municipalities, and the municipality of Massa has actively collaborated in the realization of the work, together with the television station Sky, which this fall will offer on its networks a documentary showing the phases of the painting’s realization. Here are some photos of the inauguration, all taken by Irene Vajra:

Inauguration of Eduardo Kobra’s David. Ph. Credit Irene Vajra

Inauguration of Eduardo Kobra’s David. Ph. Credit Irene Vajra

Inauguration of the David by Eduardo Kobra. Ph. Credit Irene Vajra

Marble quarries have their own David: it's the work of street artist Kobra

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