This work aims to let graffitos travel again. Graffitos were born on New York trains, where disadvanatged people could give themselves a new identity writing their new name (tag) to let other people know about them.
After a campaign against graffitos, writers were compelled to do their job on city walls, where the journey stopped. Meanwhile, graffitos overwhelmed every corner of the world, and reached Italy as well.
Sardinia is one of these world's corner, so far from New York and its people, buildings and habits, but where militant writers are carrying on the graffito cause.
What Collettivo Ubique, a group of artists from Turin and outskirts, and ALL CAPS, a group of artists belonging to italian writers' second generation, are trying to do is to put the Writing in a historical context. Recently, art galleries have tried to close graffitos in their spaces: it is maybe to historicize it, maybe to put writers under control under the pretext of money and fame.
What happened in Nuoro
Nuoro[1] is a peculiar town in Sardinia, where its old centre is dying. Thanks to the zone regulations, old houses and architecture are being destroyd to make room for new ferroconcrete buildings looking all the same.
For this reason, we decided to realize a throw up on an old house's wall in the Sèuna area, and to detach it to bring to New York a sample of old building technique that is desappearing[2], as well.
Detachment [3]
Collettivo Ubique and ALL CAPS detached the throw up in order to the restoration's technique, used to save frescoes from crumbling building.
The piece is already thought of an art work. But there is more. As the Writing is illegal detachment is considered illegal as well. The technique was used by looters to steal frescoes, and now when the action is strictly necessary restorers need special licences to do the job.
What will happen next
The journey to NY provides intermediate stops, where the piece will lie for a while until a new group will ask for it. It will travel by train if possible, aeroplane and/or boat. In every place, people will be asked to sign a petition to bring Artists' and Insitutes' attention to the project, and to support the project by fundraising, receiving in exchange a piece of old Nuoro's plaster.
The trip will come to its end, when some Institution in NY will accept the project and mount the piece there on an external new wall.
[1] In two new essays on the Writing, out next year at latest, there are data on Nuoro graffitos.
[2] Old local plaster is called ludru, that means rubbish, because everyone used materials they could find on the field. This ludru was set in many layers to make surface as more regular as possible, the layers were called pulimentu, that means to polish up (but also to clean up!).
[3] The process of detaching a fresco painting from the wall by removing the pigment and the intonaco. Usually an animal glue is applied to the painted surface and then two layers of cloth (calico and canvas) are applied, left to dry, and later stripped off the wall, pulling the fresco with them. It is taken to a laboratory, where the excess plaster is scraped away and another cloth is attached to its back. Finally, the cloths on the face of the fresco are carefully removed. The fresco is then ready to be mounted orn a new support.
It's a very cool art project!
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