The commission

This artwork by Sandro Chia needed to be placed at the traffic separator of the Herzieningslaan. This was a difficult task: the height of placement needed to be determined. This work of art isn't designed to stand on a pedestal: the perspective view and the refinement of the bronze skins of the horses ask for a placement not too high. Nevertheless, this sculpture had to get a prominent place at the lane, so to just put these horses on the ground wasn't an option either. The dolomite hardening is widened and so, by the use of new elements, creates a space. An ellipse- shaped floor in prefabricated, green, refined concrete interrupts the dolomite. At the place of the artwork the floor was heightened with 30 cm. Next to this, in the same concrete, a bench was placed. In the existing series of broad-leaved trees (Ostrya Carpinifolia),one tree was replaced by a coniferous tree (Pinus Sylvestris). The traffic separator became a place where the people from the neighborhood come to sit and where their children play under the legs of the horses.

Sandro Chia

Sandro Chia was born in Florence in 1946. He has studied at the Istituto d'Arte and then at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence where he graduated in 1969. After graduation, he has travelled extensively in India, Turkey and throughout Europe before settling in Rome in 1970. During the 1970's he began to exhibit in Rome and Europe, gradually moving away from conceptual works towards a more figurative style of painting. Between September 1980 and August 1981 he received a scholarship from the city of Monchengladbach in Germany where he moved to work for a year. The following year he moved to New York City, where he will remain for over two decades, with frequent trips back to Montalcino, near Siena in Italy. He has been part of the Italian "Transavanguardia" movement, exhibiting in many of the most important museums and galleries of the world. He has exhibited at the Biennale of Paris and San Paolo and three times at the Venice Biennale. His work has been part of internationally acclaimed museum group shows, but he has also had various important solo exhibitions all over the world. In 2003, the Italian State acquired three important works of his for the permanent collection of the Italian Senate at Palazzo Madama, and in 2005 two monumental sculptures were acquired by the Province of Rome and placed in front of its headquarters in Via IV Novembre, Rome. Today he lives between Miami, Rome and his Castello Romitorio wine-making estate in Montalcino, where he also follows the production of prestigious wines, amongst which the world-famous Brunello wine which has won the 'International Wine Challenge' for best red wine in 2010.