culture
A giant toe causes astonishment in the Rudolf Bednar Park in Leopoldstadt. The sculpture by the artist Leopold Kessler has been there since last week – and is growing. The nail is getting longer by two centimeters every day and should be cared for by the residents.
“One of the ideas is that monuments always portray a moment in history and then go out of style. And with the toe, this status quo has to be restored over and over once more, because it’s just growing,” explains Kessler in the “Vienna Today” interview. The toe has been in Bednar Park since September 14th. When inspected locally, it tends to arouse amazement among the residents.
nail is cut
Although he has grown ten centimeters so far, you hardly notice it. The residents seem to care regarding him. A boy recently trimmed the nail with a small saw. However, the artist suspects that some cracks indicate that people might be jumping and climbing on it. But that is also part of the art project and is comparable to a real nail. “Of course, that grows out.”
The nail can be up to two meters long in total. The plate inside the toe is enough for that much – “then the plate is changed”. So the toe needs replenishment every hundred days or so. Nice for the artist: The toe has now become a meeting point. “You meet at the toe, the kids do gymnastics on it.”
Residents are amazed
A year in the park
Another footnote: neither the artist in Vienna nor an oligarch’s niece on Ibiza posed for the toe. “I wasn’t really aware of that,” says Kessler. “It’s more regarding the fact that you kind of have to be careful on those toes. So the question is who cuts it. And the thing is, I don’t cut it and it’s left in the public domain.” At Bednar Park, the toe will be there for a year, hoping for care.