It’s the latest controversial artwork from Antony Gormley, the Turner prizewinner.

People who aspire to high art need only climb on a Trafalgar Square plinth and pose as a sculpture. They will take it in turns for an hour, to do, literally, whatever takes their fancy. He gets the £300,000 fee from the public purse for their 60 minutes of fame.

The artist, who specialises in taking moulds from his body, was confirmed this morning as the next recipient of the commission to fill the empty 1840s plinth in London’s historic square.

Gormley’s winning ’work’ called “One and Other” will offer ordinary members of the public more than their 15 minutes of fame, transforming the plinth into living art.

Times Archive, 1968: Churchill Memorial

A standing figure of Sir Winston would certainly possess sufficient bulk to occupy an oblong plinth

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The plinth will be occupied for 100 days, 24 hours a day, by anyone volunteering to stand on it for an hour at a time.

Some 2,400 people – whether a businessman, a car-mechanic or a body-builder, the artist suggests – will participate.

Gormley considers that each will become “an image of themselves”. One of his critics was less than impressed this morning, saying: “The empty plinth is to be filled with empty ideas.” The commission is part of a series of changing displays for the plinth, one of four in the pedestrianised square, the others bearing statues of Nelson, General Charles Napier and Major-General Sir Henry Havelock and George IV.

After Gormley’s 100 days, Shonibare will present “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle”, a scale replica of HMS Victory, in a giant glass bottle. Its sails will be made of patterned textiles commonly associated with Africa and bought from the ethnic Brixton market. Shonibare describes it as celebrating “London’s immense ethnic wealth”.

The plinth had stood bare for 158 years until the previous chairman of the

Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Prue Leith, came up with the idea of using it as a showcase for modern work.

Although the public had wanted to see statues of Nelson Mandela, Shakespeare or even a British bulldog, a changing programme of temporary sculptures was introduced instead.

Each one remains on the plinth for 18 months, as part of a 20-year series.

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