On December 1, 2016, in front of the University La Sapienza in Rome, Davide Dormino introduced Rome to his artwork Anything to Say?The work will be on display until December 6.

A monument to whistleblowers

The bronze piece is made of life-size statues of three contemporary heroes: Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning. The three men are standing on three chairs, and next to them there is an empty chair for a spectator to stand on. Only when a spectator stands on the chair is the statue complete:

"The empty chair has a double meaning: it can be a comfortable everyday object, on which we sit and stay still. But when we stand on it, it can become very uncomfortable because we take a position and we strive to know more about the world around us from another point of view," explains Dormino.

Bringing courage to Europe

The statue has been touring major European cities since May 1, 2015: Berlin and Dresden in Germany, Genève in Switzerland, Paris, Strasburg and Tours in France, Perugia in Italy, Belgrade in Serbia, Ptuj in Slovenia and now Rome, Italy.

“The statue is touring Europe because it is a monument for everyone who doesn’t belong to a political or religious creed, nor to a particular country. The courage of men such as Snowden, Assange and Manning is for everybody,” Dormino says.

Another very important end of this artwork is the will to inform the public. For this reason accompanying the statue there is all the information on Assange, Manning and Snowden. Many people still ignore who they are and the author thinks it is important to change this.

According to Dormino, “To be free, we need to be courageous - and courage is contagious.”

The artwork will then be on display in Rome until December 6. If you happen to be in the Italian capital, go and take a stand!