Anything to Say by Davide Dormino

The private art project ‘Anything to Say?’ by the sculptor and DiEM25 member Davide Dormino has been inaugurated on Saturday, June 5th in Geneva Jet d’eau.

Eminent personalities took part in the inauguration, such as Nils Melzer, Frédérique Perler, Stella Morris, Yves Daccord, Yasmine Motarjemi, Julijana Zita, among many others. In the afternoon, many people stood on the empty chair and spoke out!

Davide Dormino has created the private art project Anything to Say?, an itinerant bronze sculpture and art installation which was placed in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz on May Day 2015. It features the whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Chelsea Manning standing on three chairs and one empty chair meant as a platform for public speaking. In 2016 Davide Dormino was awarded the Prix Éthique 2016 by Anticor for Anything to Say? Davide Dormino is also featured on DiEM Voice’s “Raise your voice for Assange” Campaign.

“It is up to us to do our part because Art and Culture create conscience and critical thinking. This sculpture wants to be our voice to support their courage in defending the truth. It wants to be an alarm bell for each of us, as freedom of speech and of the press is at risk. Transparency, knowledge and investigative journalism, all chapters that make the book of our life, and not just that of Assange, Manning and Snowden, are also threatened. Many others have taught us that sometimes sacrifice is the highest form of freedom. Being informed is an act of resistance and it gives us the possibility to choose where we want to be and above all with whom. My hope is that this work continues to go where politics and justice fail.” (Davide Dormino)