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Resine and marble bust
73h x 52w x 28d cm
In The Smiling Hannibal, the figure gazes directly at the viewer. He welcomes the visitor in a shade entirely different from the one that marked him throughout European history — a tone derived from the original sculpture discovered in Capua, attributed to the Carthaginian strategos and political leader.
A sarcastic smile on Hannibal’s lips transforms the historical distance that has long separated the viewer from Rome’s enemy. The work questions the distances that Europe — heir to Rome — still imposes on the Others, including North African migrants, Hannibal’s descendants. Irony destabilizes the stereotyped relationship that tradition has sought to enforce over the centuries.