LucadeaLuca is the creator of this site. He travels the world for work and loves taking photographs and sharing them with all his visitors.

Eliska’s statue by the sea in Sestri Levante.
On the terrace of the former Annunziata convent, with the sea of Sestri Levante directly in front of it, a female figure appeared for a few months as if she were quietly looking out over the bay. It was a sculpture by Leonardo Lustig, an artwork I had the chance to photograph while it was temporarily displayed in this particular corner of my town.
Its position immediately caught my attention. The woman, named Eliska, was leaning towards the sea and seemed to have a direct relationship with the surrounding landscape. It was therefore not simply a statue placed in a square or garden, but an artwork whose character changed because of the setting in which it had been installed.
I know this part of Sestri Levante quite well, and the Annunziata terrace is one of those places where the relationship between the town and the sea becomes especially clear. Photographing the statue therefore also meant including something of its surroundings and allowing the location itself to become part of the image.
Leonardo Lustig is a Ligurian sculptor whose work includes sculptures designed to interact with urban and landscape settings. For this photograph I wanted to preserve precisely that connection between the artwork and Sestri Levante, because that is what made Eliska’s temporary presence particularly interesting to me.
I took this photograph myself while the statue was standing on the terrace of the former Annunziata convent. I like remembering that detail because temporary installations have something special about them. They can become part of a familiar landscape for a relatively short time and then disappear, leaving photographs behind as a record of their presence.
If you are looking for what to see in Sestri Levante beyond its best-known bays, details like this can also reveal a less familiar side of the town. The Bay of Silence and the Bay of Fables naturally attract most of the attention, but walking around and looking carefully can also reveal artworks and temporary installations that change the character of a place for a while.
That was exactly what interested me about Eliska. The female figure did not seem to compete with the surroundings but almost to accompany them. Her position towards the water made it natural to look first at the sculpture and then immediately towards the view in front of her.
One small curiosity concerns the setting itself. The former Annunziata convent stands on the Sestri Levante peninsula, between the Bay of Silence and the Bay of Fables. Its position makes it particularly interesting for photography because the sea and the historic character of the town come together very closely.
For anyone interested in the artist’s work, I had also included his website in the original article: Leonardo Lustig. I am keeping that reference here because it was part of the original content and provides a direct connection between the photograph and the sculptor who created the artwork.
What interests me most about this image today, however, is the temporary nature of the sculpture. When you photograph a permanent monument, you can usually expect to find it in the same place years later. A sculpture displayed for only a few months is different. The photograph becomes a record of how that particular place looked at a specific moment.
This is something I often find in the photographs I have taken around Sestri Levante. A familiar town is never completely still. A temporary installation, a change in the streetscape or simply a detail I had never noticed before can alter a scene I have known for years.
In this case, Eliska made the Annunziata terrace even more distinctive. The sculpture, the sea and the architecture of the former convent came together to create an image in which it was difficult to separate the artwork from its surroundings.
Other stories on my photo blog about Sestri Levante follow a similar approach, looking for details that are less obvious than the town’s most familiar views. This photograph belongs to that same way of looking, but with an artistic presence that fortunately remained long enough for me to capture it with my camera.
Looking at the photograph now, I think that is what gives it its value. It is not only a picture of a sculpture, but also a memory of Eliska looking towards the sea from the Annunziata terrace.

Do you remember seeing this statue in Sestri Levante? Add a comment or go to the bottom of the site to read what other visitors have written.

Photos taken with Canon EOS M100 and lens Canon EF-S 10-18.

More articles on this topic: