Cosimo Veneziano removes public monument to female labor in Turin after city proposes street art overlay

Artist Cosimo Veneziano has removed his public artwork "Questo è dunque un monumento?" from a fountain in Turin's ex-Superga factory park after the city's Circoscrizione 5 proposed covering it with new street art as part of a PNRR-funded urban renewal project. The 2012 work, created within the situa.to project curated by collective a.titolo, featured Corten steel plates with images of women's hands mimicking repetitive shoe assembly gestures, based on interviews with former Superga factory workers. In 2013, the city officially named the area "Piazza" alle Operaie della Superga. Over twelve years, the site deteriorated; the fountain basin was removed, and the monument became barely visible amid vandalism. The municipality had previously removed benches and tables due to drug dealing. When contacted by the district about a new street art intervention, Veneziano was offered to keep the hands within the new design or remove them. He chose removal, rejecting relocation to a stele as it would turn the work into a decorative element. The artist notes that the removal has sparked public discourse on memory, the lifespan of contemporary public art, and the fragility of non-celebratory monuments in Italy.