Best to behave badly when on your soapbox

British artist Antony Gormley with a model of his Fourth Plinth commission, One and Other. Photo / AP

Ever since Antony Gormley was commissioned to winch people up on a plinth in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London to do whatever they wished, doom-mongers have predicted the "living artwork" would become a soapbox for extremists, nudists and Britain's most depraved exhibitionists.

But for the sculptor, there is only one worse outcome than this: for none of the above to happen.

His Fourth Plinth commission will be installed from July 6 and Gormley says he would be disappointed if everyone who was chosen to be winched atop the plinth as part of One and Other behaved sensibly.

At the very least, he says, there should be a bit of nudity, interspersed with the odd arrest, perhaps.

Oh, and he would be applying to climb up there too, if only for the view.

"Unless there is a degree of contention up there, it will have no teeth. The project will be limp ... I would be very upset if somebody didn't take their clothes off ... I imagine there may be occasion for arrest. We will have to deal with that when it happens."

The public came closer to finding out who would be drawn to Gormley's soapbox theatre when internet registrations began last week. Nearly 5000 people have signed up.

Over 100 days, 2400 randomly selected applicants will be carted on to the plinth for an hour each, to make incendiary speeches across the square or merely stare up at the clouds. There will be no vetting process for applicants, although equal numbers of men and women will be selected.

Event organisers, Artichoke, say people will be free to use the plinth to air any political views they like, provided they remain within the law.

Health and safety regulations require a safety net to be assembled around the 3m high plinth. The only three rules are that applicants go up on their own, take whatever equipment they can, and avoid breaking the law.

Helen Marriage, an Artichoke director, says: "We will have non-stop teams in Trafalgar Square and people who are lifting the applicants up, so they will lift them down if they have to."

Gormley does not deny the concept bears a passing resemblance to reality television formats or that it will attract fame-seekers (it will be streamed live and Sky Arts will show its highlights every week in Britain) but it will not undermine its greater impact, he insists.

"There will be those self-selecting exhibitionists who have been burning to communicate their acts or words but there will be others who are just representing themselves or their communities. There will be those people who hold dearly prejudicial views but these voices will be qualified by other acts and voices."

Gormley says the artwork will also act as an "important archive" which will become a reference source at sociology and anthropology departments of the London School of Economics.

With four cameras angled at the plinth at all times, the idea, says Gormley, is to immortalise the debates of our times. His critics, however, say the greatest debate is whether this idea constitutes art at all.

The Fourth Plinth commission scheme has often sparked controversy, including over Mark Quinn's sculpture, Alison Lapper Pregnant, a sculpture of a fellow artist who was born with phocomelia, which left her with no arms and shortened legs.

- INDEPENDENT