Giano

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“Giano” by Pietro Consagra, 1997
Largo di Santa Susanna
Rome, April 2013

“If you're a tourist pussy and Piazza Bologna's too far off the beaten track, we recommend Pietro Consagra's ‘Giano nel Cuore di Rome,’ available for viewing at the top of the city's financial district at the end of Largo S. Susanna. To get there, begin at Piazza della Republica and walk northwest on via Orlando, ignoring the Moses Fountain (which will no doubt be covered for repairs, anyway) on your right and proceeding on for an additional 50 meters or so, to the ‘Giano.’ Unfortunately, even our big print dictionary provides no hint of what a ‘Giano’ might be, though an urban dicitionary site offers this definition: ‘An interesting gothy type of man. Usually bigger built, but extravagently [sic] gorgeous. Often has a warm heart, but can be pushed toward aggression for the things he loves.’ You can't make this stuff up. We definitely sense some gothy thing going on here. The Zanichelli dictionary offers some help: Giano is Janus, the Roman god who managed the universe by looking forward and backward. Or, as Dianne commented, ‘it looks like gumby.’” (Rome's Worst Public Sculptures, Rome - The Second Time)