ASUNCION: MONTEVIDEO URUGUAY
Source: Brooklynstreetart
VORTEX, IRRADIATION, BOLOGNA
November 2014, Bologna, Italy
“Irradiation” is a new mural by Opiemme in Bologna, located in Piazza XX Settembre, close to the Central Station, and right up the roof of Autostazione bus station.
“Vortex” and “Irradiation” is a series of work inspired by stars, sky and universe.
“I wanted to paint this little spot since 2012. Then in January 2014 I won a prize in Setup Fair and I met the direction of Autostazione. I immediatly ask them: may I paint that?” Opiemme
He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven
by William Butler Yeats
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Don’t steal my freedom, Como
October 2014, Como, Italy
Don’t steal my freedom, 2014
A monument to Bicycle’s freedom
Located in Piazza Volta, Como
A public installation for Comon and Streetscape3
Photo by: Emanuele Scilleri
May, 2015 Nowhere
The installation was supposed to be removed on November 2014.
At the end of May 2015 it was still in Piazza Volta, beloved of the people.
You can see several photos on Instagram by checking out #dontstealmyfreedom
LITTLE TRIBUTE TO SZYMBORSKA IN MOSCIANO
Street poetry on bricks. Words are from the very first three lines of Wislawa Szymborska’s poem “Under a certain little star”.
“My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity in case I’m mistaken.
Don’t be angry, happiness, that I take you for my own.”
MOSCIANO SANT’ANGELO, ABRUZZO
August 2014, Mosciano Sant’Angelo
A new tribute to Wislawa Szymborska poetry after the one painted in Gdansk for Monumental Art.
The first three lines of the poems “Under a certain little star” are used in the “vortex” work:
“My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.
My apologies to necessity in case I’m mistaken.
Don’t be angry, happiness, that I take you for my own.”
Artists: Alleg, Gio Pistone, Giulio Vesprini, Mp5, DIssendo Cognitivo, Opiemme
A TRIBUTE TO WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA’S POETRY
Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.
MOBY DICK X MUSEUM OF URBAN ART (ITALY)
May 2014, Turin, Italy
Opiemme, AHAB’s WHALE, Melville’s Moby Dick tribute, Mau, 2014
A new public painting for MAU (Museum of Urban Art), located in Corso Tassoni/Via Cibrario, Torino
A calligram inspired by Melville’s words from his masterpiece “Moby Dick”.
On BROOKLYN STREET ART
OPIEMME X MOBY DICK X MUSEUM OF URBAN ART (ITALY)
Posted on June 3, 2014
There has been some excited talk in the last couple of weeks here about the announcement of a new urban art museum in New Jersey associated with Mana Contemporary – some even saying that it is the first of its kind. No doubt it will be a first in many categories but when we heard the name MANA associated with an urban museum we also thought of MAU. The Museum of Urban Art in Turin Italy is called Museo d’Arte Urbana and it has a director and a board, has programmed and placed countless works in public spaces since the mid 1990s, and is reportedly securing a large permanent location in that city as well. Exactly the same, only different.
“It’s a really particular reality,” says Opiemme this week of the MAU program that just brought him to Torino, as the city is natively referred to. “There’s a block called Campidoglio where MAU took over beginning in 1995,” the Street Artist says about what is essentially a mural arts program that has brought public artists and artworks to the street in a curated fashion. Successfully, you might add, from the citizens point of view.
“Actually I never painted in a place where people were so happy to have me there,” he says of the new 50 square meter text based whale based on Melville’s Moby Dick. Installed over a weekend in May where Corso Tassoni meets Via Cibrario, the text comes from the book, is entitled “Ahab’s Whale”, and according to Opiemme, it questions who is the bigger monster – the whale or the captain’s obsession. […]
YOUR DRAWINGS, MY DRAWINGS
February 2014, Kwadèbouke, Port au Prince (Haiti)
In our first week here I had the opportunity to have children draw for us in these schools: La Providence, St. Camille a Croix de Bouquette, and Kai Chal Delmas31, thanks to the Little Sisters of the Gospel. The drawings of more than 1000 children will become compositions made in glue and paper.
We would not be able to do this without the help of many people: Angela, Sister Louise, Sister Vanna, Don Crescenzo, Maurizio Barcaro, the directors and the teachers of the schools, and our Haitian friend, Claudy, who accompanied us through the streets, translating for us in Creole language with people passing by, Nana of artstreetvyzionayiti.org, a very kind lady who introduced us to St. Camille’s children.
This is an indipendent and self-financed project, for supporting Foyer St. Camille Hospital through charity auction in Turin by Madian Orizzonti:
Madian Orizzonti
THERE IS NO CITY ANYMORE
February 2014, Port au Prince (Haiti)
Photos and videos by Gianluca Orrù (Tekla Video, Torino)
“It has been five days since we arrived at the St. Foyer St. Camille mission in Croix-des-Bouquets. We have seen very little. Moving from one place to another isn’t easy.
Dust, walls, barbed wire. White people hidden behind walls. Only a few tarmacked roads. Ruins and rubble everywhere. Crumbling, unsafe walls. Glass shattered by the earthquake, unstable arcades. Very little has been rebuilt. The famous Presidential Building has been demolished. On the roadside, people sell practically anything from market stalls along Route Nationale #1. On Sundays, people wash their cars and motorbikes. Above a layer of trash that covers the ground. I have yet to see a foreigner walking among Haitians on the streets of this capital city.
We have travelled only marginally through what is known as the poorest and most dangerous place in the Western Hemisphere: the Cité Soleil slum. We have filmed very little with a GoPro. Trying not to be noticed by eyes which are anything but friendly. Lots of raised middle fingers. Although we have covered around twenty kilometres, we have not seen a white person. There is no city at all here, nor a capital, and I wonder if there ever was, before the earthquake on January 4th 2010. I don’t know whether I will be able to paint where and how I had wanted to. The perception of danger is very high.”
ASK THE DUST, ASK THE PEOPLE
February 2014, Turin
“People don’t take trips… trips take people” J. Steinbeck
“To be a real artist you have to be a real person” Victor Rice
The journey” is a poetic prerogative.
In 2013, Opiemme crossed Italy. The “journey through painting and poetry”, recounted by Huffington Post, drew a symbolic line of street poetry from North to South of Italy.
In 2014, Opiemme will cross the Ocean, fly to Haiti and land in Port-au-Prince. The “ask the dust, ask the people” journey, narrated by the journalist and video-maker Gianluca Orrù of Tekla Television, will draw the memory, dreams and sins of Port-au-Prince children.
In the capital of Haiti, Opiemme will be painting together with the children of the Foyer St Camille school, four years after the devastating earthquake of January 12th 2010.
This painting and poetry, playful and colorful project is inspired by John Fante’s famous novel, Ask the Dust (1939).
Questions, questions, questions: the answers from the people. Why are there so many NGO in the country? Why is the situation still so tragic? What has been rebuilt? Ask the dust, the only thing of which there is plenty after the earthquake; Ask the people, who have no voice, what it is like to live in Haiti today. Remember a date, the 12th of January 2010, has been so quickly forgotten.
Why Haiti?
Opiemme made his first contribution to the Haitian earthquake relief efforts in 2010, when he donated works for the “Asta X Haiti” auction held in Turin by the non-profit organization Madian Orizzonti to collect funds for the construction of the Saint Camille hospital in Jérémie. He has donated works for all subsequent editions. This journey hopes to increase the adhesions of both artists and collectors to the auction (https://www.madian-orizzonti.it/come-contribuire)
BEFORE LEAVING
February 2014, Nowhere
“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” John Steinbeck
I made this work (left) just a few weeks after the devastating earthquake of 12th January 2010 in Haiti. I clearly remember that moment: I was on a train from Milan to Turin. In December 2010 it was shown in a charity auction for Haiti in Turin. I took part to every edition of this charity auction “Asta x Haiti“.
I really wanted to see what is going on in this country. I hope as well that this will be a little occasion to give attention to this charity auction. In a few day Gianluca Orrù, from Tekla Studio, and I will leave, and will be hosted by Camillians Fathers in Port-au-Prince.
It will be a journey of playfulness and colours for some children in Haiti, of questions aimed at giving insights into how the country is doing today. ASK THE DUST, ASK THE PEOPLE.
An huge thanks to who helped me in setting everything for:
Anna, Alessando, Elisabetta, Edward, Elisa, Gianluca, Marta, Riccardo.
Opiemme
Support Madian Orizzonti and charity auction in Turin:
Madian Orizzonti
