Giant Hands Reaching For Each Other Becomes The Newest Monumental Sculpture In Venice

Following up on his monumental sculpture for the 2017 Venice Biennale, Support, artist Lorenzo Quinn has returned to the city with yet another phenomenal work. This time, Lorenzo built six pairs of hands joining over the historic Arsenale. At almost 50 feet (15m) high and 65 feet (20m) wide, Building Bridges is a piece that celebrates unity and is a stunning addition to the city as it hosts the 58th Venice Biennale.

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“Building Bridges is about taking action and cultures uniting for a common good”

Image credits: Halcyon Art International

“My work in Venice wasn’t finished with Support, my previous sculpture,” Lorenzo told Bored Panda. “In fact, it’s a trilogy. Support was meant to encourage us to open your eyes and Building Bridges is about taking action and cultures uniting for a common good. The third piece (which will be unveiled after 2 years)… Well, you’ll just have to wait and see but I can tell you that it won’t involve any hands.”

“The human hands fascinate me because through them, I am able to spread very direct, universal messages. Plus, I’m Italian, we speak with our hands”

“Building Bridges consists out of 6 individual bridges: wisdom, hope, help, faith, friendship, and love”

“I wanted to represent the 5 continents and the sixth one – love – bringing them all together”

“In numerology, 6 is the number of love”

“The engineering was crazy,” Lorenzo said. “We had little time to change the designs to fit the new location given to us just 5 weeks before the inauguration of the piece, but we made it happen thanks to an amazing team.”

The location for Building Bridges is a special one, although it wasn’t Lorenzo who had to decide on it. Nonetheless, the artist said that it turned out just right and has even become a destination point. “It’s also interesting that in the Arsenale, they built the boats that traveled the world and opened commerce between Venice and the Far East, bridging cultures.”