Gabriele Boero

The Walk the Line Street Art project, organized in the north-western Italian city of Genoa, starting from summer 2016 has brought a new face to the skyway of the city, mostly hated by both residents and tourists but strictly necessary for the city's fluid control of the traffic flow. Working on the surface of the pillars of the skyway, the artists called by the curators have been participating in a project that not only wants to embellish an infrastructural element of the city, but also wants to start a dialogue and create a link between different neighborhoods, creating a sort of open-space gallery. Furthermore, the different backgrounds of the artists who have taken part in the project raise a reflection about the dialogue between Graffiti-Writing traditions that still live today and Street Art innovations in the field of public art issues. The essay has the purpose of analyzing this kind of Street Art project, evaluating its artistic and social impact on the city, comparing i...

All’inizio degli anni 2000, lo street artist Banksy inizio a diffondere le sue rappresentazioni (disegni a stencil, graffiti, tag e varie altre tipologie di interventi) nelle strade di Londra. Ancora semisconosciuto, durante l’arco che, in modo approssimato, si puo definire tra il 2000 e il 2010, l’artista di Bristol costrui la sua fama mondiale grazie ad un costante programma di interventi di arte urbana praticata illegalmente nelle strade della capitale britannica. Il presente contributo si propone di esaminare e ripercorrere storicamente le incursioni di Banksy nel panorama visivo della citta durante il primo decennio del nuovo millennio, realizzate con il chiaro e dichiarato intento di stimolare la coscienza degli osservatori. In effetti, l’opera del celebre street artist, infatti, puo essere interpretata insieme come specchio e reazione ai rapidi cambiamenti economici, sociali e culturali di Londra all’alba del nuovo millennio, oltre che come pietra miliare nella recente storia...

The Walk the Line Street Art project, organized in the north-western Italian city of Genoa, starting from summer 2016 has brought a new face to the skyway of the city, mostly hated both by residents and tourists but strictly necessary for the city’s fluid control of the traffic flow. Working on the surface of the pillars of the skyway, the artists called by the curators have been participating to a project that does not want just to embellish an infrastructural element of the city, but that wants also to start a dialogue and to create a link between different neighborhoods, creating a sort of open-space gallery. Furthermore, the different backgrounds of the artists that have been taking part in the project allow developing a reflection about the dialogue between Graffiti-Writing traditions that still live today and Street Art innovations in the field of public art issues. The essay has the purpose of analyzing this kind of Street Art project, evaluating his artistic and social impact on the city, comparing it with the traditions developed by the protagonists of the Writing scene in Genoa and in the north of Italy during the 1990s and the 2000s and introducing various questions about terminology.

All'inizio degli anni 2000, lo street artist Banksy iniziò a diffondere le sue rappresentazioni (disegni a stencil, graffiti, tag e varie altre tipologie di interventi) nelle strade di Londra. Ancora semisconosciuto, durante l'arco che, in modo approssimato, si può definire tra il 2000 e il 2010, l'artista di Bristol costruì la sua fama mondiale grazie ad un costante programma di interventi di arte urbana praticata illegalmente nelle strade della capitale britannica. Il presente contributo si propone di esaminare e ripercorrere storicamente le incursioni di Banksy nel panorama visivo della città durante il primo decennio del nuovo millennio, realizzate con il chiaro e dichiarato intento di stimolare la coscienza degli osservatori. In effetti, l'opera del celebre street artist, infatti, può essere interpretata insieme come specchio e reazione ai rapidi cambiamenti economici, sociali e culturali di Londra all'alba del nuovo millennio, oltre che come pietra miliare nella recente storia dell'arte di strada. Il Cans Festival, organizzato da Banksy nel 2008 in un tunnel dismesso della stazione di Waterloo, portò definitivamente alla luce e all'attenzione dei media questa tipologia di interventi artistici, organizzando un incontro tra street artists di tutto il mondo e costituendo così le premesse per le numerose azioni artistiche di tipo legale che ancora oggi continuano ad essere effettuate nello spazio pubblico di Londra. ABSTRACT: At the beginning of the 2000s, street artist Banksy begins to spread his representations (stencil drawings, graffiti, tags and other kinds of interventions) all over London's roads. Still almost unknown , between 2000 and 2010, the artist from Bristol builds his worldwide fame thanks to a constant program of illegally-realized urban art actions through the roads of United Kingdom's capital city. The purpose of the article is to examine and retrace the history of Banksy's early actions in the visual landscape of the city, focusing on their aspects of strong politic and social criticism, realized with the clear intent of stimulating citizens' conscience. Indeed, the famous street artist's work can be interpreted both as a mirror and a reaction to the rapid economic, social and cultural changes of London at the beginning of the 21st century, in addition to constitute a turning point in the recent history of street art. The Cans Festival, which was organized by Banksy in 2008 in an abandoned tunnel in Waterloo Station, finally brought to the light and to the attention of the media this kind of artistic actions, giving the possibility to street artists from all over the world to meet each other. In that occasion, Banksy put the foundations to the following numerous artistic actions realized in a legal regime, which are still today created in London's public space.