*NEWSBITES
Visitors to the exclusive ski resort of St. Moritz, in Switzerland, are in for a surprise: the sight of a large sculpture of a woman’s hand – giving the finger!
The artwork by Basel-based Swiss artist Nikolai Winter sits atop Berg Muottas Muragl in Samedan (St. Moritz). The anthracite-colored sculpture, which is 2.3 meters (7.55 feet) high, was flown in by helicopter.
On his website, Winter states: “Hands especially fascinate me. They can be shown in various postures and sometimes even have a symbolic character. Therefore I use their communicative impact to give my sculptures aura and expression.”
Sure, but in this case, the nail-polished hand leaves little doubt to what it “symbolizes,” though one might wonder whether the finger is being given by or to those skiing past.
Winter is quoted in German as saying: “In a sexy, provocative but elegant way that sort of embodies the Jet Set a ‘doigt d’honneur” now sits perched above the über-chic resort of St. Moritz.” Winter used the somewhat more sonorous French term “doigt d’honneur” to denote the digit rather than the inelegant-sounding German term “Stinkefinger.”
Winter’s striking sculpture is now the fourth artwork on the 2,400-meter (7,874-foot) Muottas Muragl — but by far the most “expressive.”
Read the full story in German by Anna Warnholtz
Photo – Nikolai Winter
*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations
