Red Shoes Against Violence

This subject was made to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

Around the world, around 45 thousand women are killed every year, 5 every hour. In most cases the perpetrator is a member of their family. In Italy, in 2023, 106 women were killed, one every three days. In the world, 1 in 3 women has suffered sexual or physical violence at least once in their life and 86% live in countries where there is no legal protection against violence (UN Women data).

Physical, psychological and sexual abuse affects over 35% of women worldwide and often affects within the home and family or is inflicted by one's partner. 

The color red was chosen as a symbol of love, of passion that turns into evil and violence, a symbol of morbid possession that becomes a death trap and a symbol of femininity which unfortunately, today, is violated too many times. The red color of the blood of murdered women is a constant in the symbols used to raise awareness of feminicides and violence, not only on the International Day for the Elimination of Gender Violence on November 25th.

Red shoes are the main symbol of the fight against violence against women, from abuse to feminicides. The history of the shoes was born in Mexico, in Ciudad Juarez, a town known for holding the sad record of the highest number of feminicides in the world. Here the Mexican artist Elina Chauvet, to remember the women victims of violence, including her sister murdered by her husband at just twenty years old, in 2009 placed 33 pairs of women's shoes, all red, known as "zapatos rojos", in a square. Today they are the most used image in awareness campaigns, in the press and in installations.

The red shoe in women is seen as a synonym of independence, emancipation, a strong character or even aggression. Red is a color with a thousand facets and a thousand meanings. For the Chinese it represents happiness, for the Indians purity, in South Africa mourning, while in our area it is more linked to power, strength, perhaps because it resembles blood. They can be the shoes of a femme fatale, or of a woman who knows how to be elegant and chic, without necessarily making a sexual appeal. At the base there is always security or power. Women who dress in red are always subject to stereotypes, in fact they are seen as passionate and sexually uninhibited women (but not excluding the possibility that they are). 

Stones used: Red from Pyrenees, Egyptian Diasper, Belgian Black Marble, Afyon Marble.

Year of composition: 2023

Size: cm 22,5x29,5

Artist: Leonardo Scarpelli

An original and authentic hand-made artwork created whith the antique technique of Commesso Fiorentino which is unique for Florence.

Commesso Fiorentino was born with Medici family, one of the most important families in Florence, in the second half of 1500.

The research of the stones is made by the mosaicist that must be able to choose from a rich and wide range of shades and veins: for this reason the artists personally search and collect the stones retracing the paths of the Medici researchers.

The processing starts by drawing the subject on adhesive paper, that is then cut into small tamplates that will be attached to the variegated shades of the stones following the visual instinct, the innate gift of the artist and his perfect knowledge of the materials. The shape of the little piece will be cut by hand with a chestnut, cherry or hazelnut wood bow and an iron wire that flows with abrasive powder and water. It creates a very precise and inclined cut to form the essential spaces to accommodate the glue, made by artisans with beeswax and pine tree resin. The different stones are previously glued onto a slate surface which acts as a support during the cutting and filing phase. The various pieces which form the composition are adjusted in shape with diamond files, glued together so that the joints are invisible, flattened and finally polished in order to create a perfect decorative harmony showing the colors of nature in all their radiance.