Michelangelo's idea was simple: ' take a piece of marble, look at it until you see the statue hidden inside. The only thing the sculptor has to do is to peel the marble off, layer by layer, and the statue will emerge.' This is the myth of sculpture.
The pure marble from Carrara (Italy) brought and still brings sculptors from all over the world to the village at the foot of the marble-mountains, Pietrasanta, (literally 'holy stone'). The village is full of studio's where proud craftsmen, the artigiani make life-size copies of Michelangelo's David and other masterpieces.
But Pietrasanta has a secret. Famous sculptors, like Henry Moore, Marino Marini, and nowadays the Colombian Botero and the American Jeff Koons came to the village. They visited Pietrasanta not to carve the noble material themselves, but to have their sculptures completely done by artigiani. In the art world they pose as the Michelangelo's of today, heroes with hammers and chisels. And the artigiani remain anonymous. The film shows us the tensions between artists and artigiani, the world and the village. And what's left of the myth of sculpture.
