The name of the piece is Madame and you might notice that he has one sandal on, and one women's shoe. Turn around and look at the front and what do you know - no boy parts. So now I'm wondering what this is all about, and I just can't understand what the artist was getting at, and as far as I can understand, its not really about gender.
The statue is in a public park area with people around and kids playing on it all the time - so its there for the touching. Then there's that Braille lettering at the bottom "Noli me tangere". It means "don't touch me". Hmm - okay - I guess that's kinda clever.
Original sculpture (left). He was holding grapes and the child was reaching for them.
The German / Danish artist Christian Lemmerz is well known in that part of the world because he once had an art installation comprised of dead pigs in glass containers. Viewers could watch them decompose. There was a public outcry and I think they were taken away - mostly due to the smell. The public wasn't so happy about this piece of art either, but by the sounds of it, it could have been worse.
Actually, looking at his work - there is one I really like.... Maybe not appropriate for a public park, but I think its done well, that's for sure.
