#bodycantwait

Background

There are 100 million people around the world in need of artificial limbs. In Togo, some people have to wait almost 20 years. Handicap International has developed 3D printing of prosthetics in order to accelerate access to prosthesis for thousands of war victims stuck in dangerous or inaccessible zones.

Idea

After trialling 3D printed limbs in three countries, Handicap International wanted to scale up the initiative. To raise both awareness and funds, famous statues in parks around Paris with missing limbs were given prosthetics. Mars, in the Tuileries gardens, for instance and, most famous of all, the Venus de Milo. She lost both her arms some two thousand years ago but was given two new ones.

Results

CNN called the photograph of the Venus de Milo with two new arms “the most striking image of the week”. This simple use of outdoor art became a worldwide story, raising awareness of an important cause.

Our Thoughts

There are more examples than you might think of art becoming advertising. Last year’s ‘best use of sculpture’ from State Street with their ‘Fearless Girl’ on Wall Street springs to mind. The contrast between the new, plastic prosthetics and the whiteness of the marble is particularly shocking because we have become so used to the limbless sculptures. What the prosthetics do is insist that we should not be equally unmoved by the plight of those who have had arms and legs amputated.