{"id":11007,"date":"2015-05-25T08:14:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T06:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/?p=11007"},"modified":"2016-03-09T08:39:52","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T07:39:52","slug":"street-art-in-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arttrav.com\/it\/street-art-in-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Art in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a Saturday morning in Rome<\/strong>, one the first days of spring. I am to meet a man at 9:30 am at a certain Bar Carra, just outside a peripheral subway station. Giorgio describes himself in an email as “tall and dark, with a piercing in my nose, one long braid, mustache and goatee”. I silently thank my acquaintance Jessica for having set up this meeting. As I survey the assortment of men with piercings in the bar that morning, wondering which is to be our street art tour guide, I think I’m rather glad I’ve brought along my husband. Giorgio shows up, not at all as threateningly handsome as he describes himself, and he immediately breaks into a story about the Quadraro<\/strong> neighbourhood and its street art movement.<\/p>\n

\"Giorgio
Giorgio doing a “strideby” in front of a work by Nicola Alessandrini<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can art consolidate a community<\/strong> and better a neighbourhood? In Quadraro<\/strong>, a quartiere popolare<\/em> or working class area of Rome, an experiment in street art<\/strong> is doing just that. The MURO Urban Art Museum of Rome<\/strong><\/a> is an open-air, free-to-access itinerary of socially relevant murals painted by local and international artists. Founded in 2010, it’s the first project of its sort in the Italian Capital. This spring, the City of Rome has released an official street art map that lists over 330 works including those in Quadraro, a recognition of the power of street art both for community building and for tourism.<\/p>\n

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MURO Street art tour in Quadraro<\/h2>\n

Giorgio is the spokesperson and official tour guide of MURO. He’s not a street artist himself, but more of a helper or facilitator. He gets the stories of works and their creation directly from the artists, often hosting those from outside Rome in his own apartment. As we stop to admire some of the first murals painted in Quadraro in 2010, he waves hello to a man in a car who turns out to be David “Diav\u00f9” Vecchiato<\/strong><\/a>, the founder and curator of the MURO project. On a long wall below via dei Lentuli, that separates a main thoroughway from the smaller streets of this quartiere<\/em>, Diav\u00f9 has painted “Art Pollinates Quadraro”; if you think it looks like cartoon spermatozoa, you’d be right: it’s a statement on the fecundity of art.<\/p>\n

\"Diav\u00f9,
Diav\u00f9, Arte Feconda Quadraro | Photo Gazebike Associazione di Promozione Sociale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Quadraro has a difficult but proud history<\/strong>, and it’s one that Diav\u00f9 and the cultural association of MURO want to bring to the forefront through visual interventions. South-East of the centre, it borders on Cinecitt\u00e0 and was developed in the first years of the 1900s, but saw particular growth before the second World War. During that war, this poor and overcrowded area was an important part of the Resistance, housing numerous active anti-Fascists, and thus was referred to by the Germans as a “wasps’ nest”. On April 17, 1944, German troops conducted a blitz on the area, taking away almost 1000 men, of which fewer than half returned. The area was awarded a gold medal for civil merit.<\/p>\n

\"Nido
Nido di Vespe, Lucamaleonte<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Nido
Nido di Vespe, detail, Lucamaleonte. Geeks may notice the symbol and formula detailed here, which is Ohm’s law: in this case, the resistance is infinite.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The “Nido di Vespe” is referred to literally in the beautiful, impactful wall painted by Lucamaleonte on Via del Monte del Grano. Diav\u00f9 commissioned the work on a large private wall (the owner was happy to give his permission), and explains that this wall represents an entry into the area of Quadraro vecchio, that until as recently as the 1970s was a kind of ghetto, with unpaved streets and improvised huts inhabited by immigrants. “This wall is intended to symbolize the resistance of this area, recognized by a medal of valour because it submitted to that terrible deportation but remained strong to its values of liberty. Nobody ever played the spy, they preferred to die in the concentration camps,” states Diav\u00f9<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Gary
Gary Baseman’s mural<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A small wall between the big wasps and the fecundating art also speaks of this story, but from the personal perspective of Gary Baseman<\/strong>, LA street artist and Emmy-award winning Disney cartoonist. The mural was made for the annual celebrations that remember the deportation of April 17 1944. Having heard the story, Baseman, of Jewish origin, used his round puppet-like figures to conjur up his own family history’s – his father was a partisan in Poland.<\/p>\n

\"Baseman
Baseman at work | Photo MURO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stories of the past, but also references to the present… one of the few works by a female artist, Gio Pistone<\/strong> has pained a protective monster that guards the entrance to a tunnel that separates Quadraro from the next area over. This tunnel was dirty, full of needles, and inhabited by a man whom locals have taken to caring for – providing him with a mattress, and making sure the tunnel gets cleaned up and is safe.<\/p>\n

\"Gio
Gio Pistone, tunnel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Its exit is painted by Mr. Thoms<\/strong> with a gigantic mouth that sucks in everything around it.<\/p>\n

\"Mr.
Mr. Thoms, tunnel exit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another international collaboration came with Jim Avignon<\/strong>, who lives half his time in Berlin (see this article about street art in Berlin) and the other half in New York. Invited to paint a large corner wall of a newly opened bar that hosts live music, this painter is also a musician, and his time in Rome was divided, performance-like, between working on the wall and playing live in the bar. The bar’s owners, Mariella and Marco, moved here actually inspired by the way that street art has blended with community life in this area. Avignon states “Street art changes the quality of life in areas, so if there’s more art, its almost like education for the people. I understand that people here really love this area…”<\/p>\n

\"Jim
Jim Avignon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Probably the most famous international artist to collaborate on the MURO project is Ron English<\/strong>, whose presence here was documented by the crew of Sky Arte. Giorgio says this was one of the most wonderful experiences because of the way the whole community really warmed to this quirky American. The local barber, Gino, thought the artist needed a haircut, and Ron let him have a go.<\/p>\n

\"Gino
Gino the Barber | Photo MURO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The beautiful work on via dei Pisoni took three days to make, during which time neighbours brought home-made tagliatelle<\/em> and gifts of drawings and\u00a0anecdotes were exchanged. And in the end, Rome has a Temper Tot<\/strong> \/ Baby Hulk by Ron English<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Ron
Ron English, Baby Hulk (with green panda)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ron
Ron English, Baby Hulk | Photo MURO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Diav\u00f9 and his team are great communicators. If you understand Italian, I highly recommend watching this video about the project – something of a sneak preview of the narrative power that will truly come through when the story of Quadraro and its street art airs on Sky Arte in Italy in October 2015. It includes testimonials from neighbourhood residents who appreciate what’s being done to cheer up their area.
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