The Bastiais still have in mind the imposing sculpture of the blue lion scrutinizing the horizon from the Old Port of Bastia. This year, it is a red gorilla more than 5 meters high that has taken its place. For the second consecutive year, the Bastia tourist office reinvites the French sculptor Richard Orlinski. Six new giant resin works by the artist with international renown are to be discovered in the municipalities of the Bastiase agglomeration community: “Horse, Panda, two Wild Kong, Standing Bear and Lion”. Visitors will be able to find them on Place Saint-Nicolas, in front of the Sainte-Lucie church in Ville di Petrabugnu, in Miomo or in the Furiani park.
Bastiais now familiar with the artist: “There was a craze, a virality and a will of the population to review the works. We had a lot of Corsicans and Bastiais feedback who told us to leave the big blue lion on the old bastia! So we decided to renew Orlinski, but this time with new works, some of which we rarely see ”, explains Véronique Valentini-Calendini, the director of the inter-municipal tourist office in Bastia.
An operation from the Tourist Office built as a real promotion tool, which has borne fruit last year. Richard Orlinski is an artist with a world famous, with more than 9 million subscribers on Instagram. Last year, publications and posts literally exploded the counters of the Bastia tourist office and this is the goal explains its director: “More than a million likes on social networks, 5,500 comments and publications that have affected 2 million people around the world. »»
If, like any contemporary artist, Richard Orlinski has his detractors, the director of the Bastia tourist office believes that art is subjective and continues: “We are a tourist office, we are looking for virality. When we do this operation, it is really to give visibility to the destination. We have an interest in that the artist has the greatest renown possible. That people take pictures of them and share them on the networks ”recalling that a tourist office does not have the same vocation as a museum.
-However, the exhibition of the works of Richard Orlinski is also a vector of valuation of the heritage and the municipalities: “We are in our mission to promote the destination and enhancement of the municipalities of the CAB. The goal is to make people move to go see the works of Orlinski. There is one in front of the Sainte-Lucie church in Petrabugnu city. This forces to discover the places, but also to create flows with the villages, where there are people and tourists who would never go there. »»
Why not works by Corsican artists?
On social networks, some comments mentioned the choice of Richard Orlinski in place of an island artist. “We have no worries about taking a local artist, but we have conditions and constraints”explains Véronique Valentini-Calendini before listing them: “There is an international renown. That the works are 3 to 5 meters high. That the artist can make the assembly and dismantling of the works. The works must be able to resist several months outside, in the various bad weather, in the rain and in the wind, and this without guarding. »»
The exhibition will be visible until October. Regarding the cost of the operation, the tourist office is advancing a budget of just over 2,800 euros per month per municipality.
