Super Walls 2021 says that the theme of this year’s festival is “Rebirth” – which is in alignment with the mission of the public art project, bringing new life to Veneto, Italy with 38 urban artists of all stripes.
Street artist Mr. Fijodor selected this image of a burning cigarette on the ICS Briosco middle school sidewall to illustrate a larger theme and point to a culprit of the modern age: thoughtless, toxic consumerism.
“The cigarette is the iconography of a ritual gesture that many people perform daily, sometimes without even realizing it,” he says of the white and black burning column stained with yellow nicotine. “A practice dictated by a physical as much as unconscious addiction.”
The larger theme is portrayed in a horror of bodies, animals, plants and objects all being consumed mindlessly. In pursuit, you may ask, of what?
He calls the work “Consumerism Consumes Us.” Indeed during the fires that rage across our lands in summers that stretch further into the year, one may sense that this way of life is going up in smoke.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening participants at Festival Asalto 2020: 1. MrFijodor, “Logo Al Rogo, MEMORY/OBLIVION” 2. Bunker Walls. Street art inside the cave. 3. Fabio Petani: Phosphorus Oxide & Narcissus 4. TANC at Pavillon Carre de Baudouin 5. Mary Wells 1944-2021 6. Chick Corea 1941-2021
BSA Special Feature: MrFijodor, “Logo Al Rogo”
For a project called with twelve artists called “Street Art Inside a Cave” in September 2020 in Bozen, Italy, graffiti writer / street artist / muralist MrFIJODOR worked on three walls creating a storied set of shadowy forms and symbols that he says tie the past with the present – in an unnerving way. He says the goal is to keep the memory of the atrocities of history alive, precisely to ensure that they never happen again.
From the project description “The wall is inspired by the theme ‘Memory and oblivion’: the one is a constant motion of the human mind, the other erases memories and consciences to start a ‘new cycle’ of reminiscences. But there are events that cannot be forgotten, such as the atrocities of the Second World War. The artwork blends art with history: the chromatic fidelity to the Nazi flag contrasts with the provocation of the piece: the swastika is made up of glasses, shoes, teeth, prosthesis of hands and feet, all those ‘personal objects’ of which the deportees were deprived to become what Primo Levi in ‘I sommersi e i salvati’ calls as “human material”. The work is also a sign of contemporaneity. Some speeches and attitudes of current sovereigns create and feed useless violence born from the manipulation of everyday life: symbols, concepts, promises and intentionally repeated gestures of which these ‘powerful’ make it their leitmotif to conquer and subjugate more or less indirectly peoples.”
MrFijodor, “Logo Al Rogo, MEMORY/OBLIVION”
The exhibition “Mythos. Ten impressions” is organized by Cooperativa Talia and MurArte Bolzano.
Bunker Walls. Street art inside the cave.
Fabio Petani: Phosphorus Oxide & Narcissus
Remember summer? Last August Fabio Patino painted this large scale mural for a private gig in in Chivasso, Italy. He calls it Phosphorus Oxide & Narcissus Pseudonarcissus.
TANC at Pavillon Carre de Baudouin
Paris artist TANC began in graffiti moved into abstraction, color washes and geometric illustration – and now enjoys a commercial/fine art career as well. Here with a project for L’association Art Azoï, he painted the exhibition wall at Pavillon Carre de Baudouin a colorscape to offset the grey of winter.
We are seeing more municipalities and institutions settle upon aspirational messages about the Earth and environmental issues every month now – a very common theme with murals in cities worldwide.
Mrfijodor and Corn79.Turin, Italy. January 2021 (photo courtesy of the artists)
This new collaboration combines the skills of two former graffiti artists, Mrfijodor and Corn79, in Turin, Italy. The two murals interplay Mrfijodors illustration-inspired figurative elements and Corn79’s elegant language of abstraction to adorn the façade of the Museum A Come Ambiente (MAcA).
“The focus is on the balance between man and nature,” says Mrfijodor, “a balance that needs to be re-established.”
Mrfijodor and Corn79.Turin, Italy. January 2021 (photo courtesy of the artists)Mrfijodor and Corn79.Turin, Italy. January 2021 (photo courtesy of the artists)Mrfijodor and Corn79.Turin, Italy. January 2021 (photo courtesy of the artists)Mrfijodor and Corn79.Turin, Italy. January 2021 (photo courtesy of the artists)Mrfijodor and Corn79.Turin, Italy. January 2021 (photo courtesy of the artists)
The project is possible thanks to the contribution of the City of Turin, Area Giovani e Pari Opportunità – Torino Creativa, and the Museum A come Ambiente – MAcA.
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