Polish artist Pawel Althamer shocked Milan park visitors on Monday by installing a massive and anatomically detailed balloon representation of himself in the nude.
The 21-metre high helium-filled figure, blowing 40 metres above Parco Sempione, was tethered with a steel cable in front of the exhibition site hosting Althamer's one-man show.
The intallation will be "watched round the clock by armed guards" said the show's organizers, fearful of attacks by angry citizens who have been snarling phone lines at municipal offices to protest.
"I do not want my little daughter to play underneath this man's genitals," an unidentified angry father told officials.
Althamer's exhibit is sponsored by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, also behind a controversial installation by rated Italian neo-conceptualist artist Maurizio Cattalan three years ago.
Cattelan's work - life-size figures of three small boys, about six years old - were hung by the neck from the branches of Milan's oldest oak tree. Dressed in jeans and overalls, the three dummies sparked an uproar in the city until a 43-year-old man succeeded in cutting the ropes supporting two of the figures during the night.
The last figure was eventually snipped away by fire workers who put the three mannequins away for safe keeping.
Organisers said they had decided to defend the installation with armed guards to avoid a similar gesture
Althamer appeared unperturbed by the hullaballoo.
"I feel as if I've just alighted on earth, as if I were destined to remain only for a little while....But if I'm here perhaps it's because I have tasks to fulfill".
The show at the neo-classical Arena hall features some 20 pieces by the Warsaw-born sculptor and performance artist.
One of the sculptures shows a boy holding a nude figure of the artist, another is a plastic cast of a foetus.
Five videos show the 40-year-old artist in surreal-like situations, including one in a mud bath smoking a joint.
Althamer won the Vincent van Gogh Award for Contemporary Art in Europe in 2004. The award is handed out every two years to an European artist that judges believe "will have a significant, enduring impact on contemporary art".
