DIAS DO DESASSOSSEGO, FOR FERNANDO PESSOA AND JOSE’ SARAMAGO
A mural celebrating Fernando Pessoa’s and Josè Saramago’s poetry for the festival DIAS DO DESASSOSSEGO.
Location: Rua Patrocinio 110, Lisbon
A journey THROUGHpainting and poetry
“A journey throught painting and poetry” is inspired by what was the initial driving force of my research: bringing poetry closer to people. Started in 2013 with a series of public poetic paintings, studied in a site-specific way, and with attention to local poets and classics, the project created a symbolic path of street poetry that crosses, from North to South, the Bel Paese.
The project became the manifesto of my research, finding other opportunities to leave “poetic posters” in the streets. The stages, as well as Italy, have touched Argentina, Uruguay, Haiti, Poland, Croatia and Thailand.
“DOLPHINS” FOR “VEDO A COLORI 2017” – To Sibilla Aleramo
Sibilla Aleramo’s first novel “A Woman at Bay” (Una Donna) describes her arrival in the town of Civitanova Marche, when she was about 11 years old and saw the sea for the first time. Doplhins are symbol of this connection, as well are letterforms, calligrams composed with words by Aleramo’s first impressions of the sea,collected from the first pages of her first book: “The sea was a bad expanse of silver, the sky an infinite smile resting upon my head…“. “My lungs drank in with avidity all that free air, that salty breath. I would race up and down in the sun on the shore and face the waves as they curled on the sand.” “Dolphins” is a site-specific mural refering on the hard life of Sibilla Aleramo. A vortex of dolphins, a downard spiral, aims to create a relationship between the sea described in her words, and what she passed through before arriving to this town: being raped by a brutal husband who worked for her father.The composition of the mural, with the spiral of dolphins, and the constellation of Delphinus running through it, refers to the series “Vortex” of Opiemme. In mythology, there are many stories connecting dolphins with rescue. Sibilla Aleramo became a symbol of a new woman that rules her own life, a woman that saved herself from a written life. The latin proverb “per aspera ad astra” (top right – “through hardships to the stars”.) works as comment to Sibilla Aleramo’s life. Opiemme’s signature (top left) is combined with a phrase by the artist: “The wind shakes my thoughts”
“I am migrant”, a migratory bird for Roccavignale
“I am migrant,
I don’t have nation,
I don’t feel borders.
I don’t have nation,
I don’t feel borders.
I follow the moon,
I live between sky and lands,
between trees and stars”
I live between sky and lands,
between trees and stars”
Opiemme, 2016
HEART-SHAPED BOX WALL IN FOLLONICA
A tribute to Nirvana’s song “Heart-shaped box”, from “In Utero” (1993).
The wall is at the corner between Via Roma and Via Parri in Follonica, Tuscany.
The wall is at the corner between Via Roma and Via Parri in Follonica, Tuscany.
A text by curator Karin Gavassa:
«Opiemme mural represents the first verse of Nirvana Heart-Shaped Box, the first single taken from In Utero. Opiemme tribute is a cascade of pure black letters shaping an heart of 30 square metres on a 100mq facade deep in the city centre of Follonica.
An intimate and deep message of love, as critic Charles R. Cross pointed out in his Kurt Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven (2001). With the lyric “I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black”, the frontman “sang in what has to be the most convoluted route any songwriter undertook in pop history to say ‘I love you’”. Opiemme stencils recall the dramatic intensity of Cobain lyrics, dissolving it in a figurative stream of consciousness on the wall of the historical building Casello Idraulico»
PYROS, MIGRAZIONE
Luglio 2015, Gavorrano (Grosseto)
Parco Nazionale delle Colline Metallifere, Teatro delle Rocce
1 Agosto – 11 Settembre
“Pyros, il vuoto del fuoco.” Un progetto a cura di Karin Gavassa.
ARGENTINA – BIENAL DEL FIN DEL MUNDO
December 2014, Argentina
Some new murals painted with Gualicho in Buenos Aires, and in Mar de Plata for the 5th edition of ‘Bienal Del Fin Del Mundo’, thanks to ‘Ginnastica della Visione’ curated by Paolo Angelosanto.
ON BROOKLYN STREET ART
BIENAL DEL FIN DEL MUNDO
INCIPIT FESTIVAL OLTRE IL MURO
January 2015, Sapri
Some new murals from Sapri and a Nemoli, thanks to “Oltre Il Muro” Festival, today “Incipit”.
Incipit organized a group show titled Mosaico, where a map of Policastro Gulf, with words of Paola D’Agostino, has been showed.
ASUNCION: MONTEVIDEO URUGUAY
Source: Brooklynstreetart
In this quick street piece painted with David de la Mano in the center of Montevideo, the artists wanted to relate the figure and the words to the nearby church of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores Tierra Santa. Appropriately titled “Asunciòn”, it is based on a poem by Julio
Cortàzar, the novelist, short story writer, and essayist. “Oh noche, asiste” is about outer space as well, Opiemme tells us, and he used the portion of the poem that says “Oh night take care of your lonely stars”.
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. […]
A JOURNEY THROUGH PAINTING AND POETRY, since 2013
October 2013, Nowhere
During summer 2013 Opiemme started “A journey through painting and poetry“. A project inspired by the first steps in his artistic quest: bringing poetry closer to people. With a series of public poetic paintings, concieved in a site specific way, with attention to local poets, Opiemme created a poetic route (of street poetry) that simbolically crosses Italy from North to South.
11 stages: Torino, Bologna, Rieti, Pizzo Calabro, Faggiano (Taranto), Ariano Irpino, Menfi, Genova, Tirano (Sondrio), Roma, Gaeta/Terracina.
18 murals: from 30 to 180 square meters, a 7 km “River of words” painted on the pavements of Turin, 3 bus stop, and a site-specific for a performance.
Poems and texts by: E. A Poe, Giovanni Pascoli, S. Francesco D’Assisi, Louise Armstrong, Franco Arminio, Giacomo Leopardi, System of a Down, local poets from Menfi (Sicily), Riccardo Bacchelli, and others.
More than 5000 Km by train and bus
This project was covered ZIGULINE webzine, and supported by:
Elastico Studio and Antonio Storelli (Bologna), 3)5 Artecontemporanea (Rieti), Bi-BOx Art Space (Biella), Studio D’Ars (Milano).
Articles:
The Huffington Post (Usa)
Brooklyn Street Art (Usa)
Street Art + Design (Uk)
Strange Line (Greece-Usa)
Artribune (IT)
SAM Museum (It) (Eng)
Mentelocale (it)
Inside Art (It)
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
STREETPOETRY ON HUFFPOST
October 2013, Nowhere
On October 23, Brooklyn Street Art came out with a very nice review about “A journey through painting and poetry” project.
It was also published on the American The Huffington Post.
Here are the words by Jaime Rojo and Steven Harrington, co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art
“What do you write?”
For decades graffiti writers have been checking out one anothers’ bonafides with this question. Even as tags turned to large complex pieces, evermore stylized through means of exaggeration or obfuscation, text has always stayed as a fundamental building block for graffiti writers.
Italian fine artist and Street Artist Opiemme took a variety of routes to employ the text-based art on the street this summer with his “journey through painting and poetry,” a project inspired by poets he loves. Breaking apart, recombining, stretching and spreading the written letterform, the public poetic paintings were conceived to be site-specific and included walls and pavement installations across Italy from north to south, including Torino, Bologna, Rieti, Pizzo Calabro, Faggiano (Taranto), Ariano Irpino, Menfi, Genova, Tirano (Sondrio), and finally Rome. “I paint using stencil and letter to create images to be read and words to be looked at,” says Opiemme, who travelled more than 5,000 kilometers by train and bus to do his various installations that included 15 murals and a 7 kilometer long “River of words” painted on the pavement in Turin. With the help of a webzine, a few galleries, and even the city of Turin, Opiemme found a receptive audience for his works, perhaps because he chose scribes known and admired in the locations he created works for. Among them are local writers and poets mixed with the American Jazz musician Louis Armstrong and Armenian-American rock band System of a Down. Also included are Edgar Allan Poe, Giovanni Pascoli, S. Francesco D’Assisi, Franco Arminio, Giacomo Leopardi, and Riccardo Bacchelli. Opiemme says he likes to explore the border between poetry and image, public and private, and to use the printed word as a graphic element on which to build more meanings, even as he sometimes disconnects the letters from their original context. With work that often touches on social or environmental themes his work has evolved onto the street and into the gallery in the 10+ years he has been practicing. For the Turin born Opiemme it is about plumbing the fine lines between public art, Street Art, and the written word to bring poetry out into the open.
Permission granted for photography used here by Opiemme, who wishes to thank photographers Cristina Principale (Bologna), Mario Covotta, Floriano Cappelluzzo (Ariano Irpino), Claudia Giraud, Thut Duong Nguyen (Torino), Livio Ninni, Ilaria Massaccesi (Tirano), Alessandro Orlandi (Rieti), Stencil Noire Cut (Faggiano), Giorgio De Finis (Roma), Donato Aquaro, Martina Serra, Sara Spallarossa, Francesco Mancini, Marco Pezzati (Genova), Anna Milano, Ivan Barreca (Menfi). Copyright is retained by photographer and the artist.
This project was covered/followed in stages by ZIGULINE webzine,
Opiemme’s journey was supported by: Elastico Studio and Antonio Storelli (Bologna), 3)5 Artecontemporanea (Rieti), Bi-BOx Art Space (Biella), and Studio D’Ars (Milano).
GAETA TERRACINA INATTESA
December, 2013 Gaeta // Terracina
A new project by the guys of Memorie Urbane.
12 artists will be painting two bus stops each in Gaeta, Terracina, and Formia.
Here is the website INATTESA, and here is where you can support the project with a crowfounding
Artists:
ALOHA OE, CANCELLETTO, HOPNN, CAMILLA FALSINI, ROCCO LOMBARDI, DIEGO MIEDO, MILLO, MP5, OPIEMME, JONATHAN PANNACCIO’, GIULIO VESPRINI, ZOLTA
Photos: Arianna Barone, Flavia Fiengo
MENFI SICILY
A journey through painting and poetry
August 2013, Menfi (Sicily)
A new mural in Menfi.
On The Huffington Post
On ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
“A journey through painting and poetry”: Italy
After three months travelling through Italy the first steps and murals of this project are done. With a series of poetic paintings, concieved in a site specific way, with attention to local poets, with texts able to represent a part of the culture of the visited places, Opiemme created a poetic route of street poetry, that simbolically crosses Italy from North to South. “A jourmey through painting and poetry” is a publicart project and a Manifesto of the aims expressed by Opiemme since the beginning of it’s quest: “bringing poetry closer to people, to renew communication channels, and searching new ways of presenting poetry.” Opiemme moved a step forward in bringing street poetry deep into muralism, passing from ephemeral actions to images and words painted and visible in public spaces and daily life spots.
This project was covered by ZIGULINE webzine, and supported by: Portanova12 (Bologna), 3)5 Artecontemporanea (Rieti)
Ariano Irpino, 2013
11 stages: Torino, Bologna, Rieti, Pizzo Calabro, Faggiano (Taranto), Ariano Irpino,
Menfi, Genova, Tirano (Sondrio), Roma, Gaeta/Terracina
18 murals: from 30 to 180 square meters, a 7 km “River of words” painted on the pavements of Turin,
3 bus stops, and a site-specific installation for a performance
Poems and texts by: E. A Poe, Giovanni Pascoli, S. Francesco D’Assisi, Louise Armstrong, Franco Arminio,
Giacomo Leopardi, System of a Down, local poets from Menfi (Sicily), Riccardo Bacchelli, and others
More than 5000 Km by train and coach
Pizzo Calabro, 2013
Genova, 2013
“Italian fine artist and Street Artist Opiemme took a variety of routes to employ the text-based art on the street this summer with his “journey through painting and poetry,” a project inspired by poets he loves. Breaking apart, recombining, stretching and spreading the written letterform, the public poetic paintings were conceived to be site-specific and included walls and pavement installations across Italy from north to south, including Torino, Bologna, Rieti, Pizzo Calabro, Faggiano (Taranto), Ariano Irpino, Menfi, Genova, Tirano (Sondrio), and finally Rome. With the help of a webzine, a few galleries, and even the city of Turin, Opiemme found a receptive audience for his works, perhaps because he chose scribes known and admired in the locations he created works for. Among them are local writers and poets mixedwith the American Jazz musician Louis Armstrong and Armenian-American rock band System of a Down. Also included are Edgar Allan Poe, Giovanni Pascoli, S. Francesco D’Assisi, Franco Arminio, Giacomo Leopardi, and Riccardo Bacchelli. Opiemme says he likes to explore the border between poetry and image, public and private, and to use the printed word as a graphic element on which to build more meanings, even as he sometimes disconnects the letters from their original context. With work that often touches on social or environmental themes his work has evolved onto the street and into the gallery in the 10+ years he has been practicing. For the Turin born Opiemme it is about plumbing the fine lines between public art, Street Art, and the written word to bring poetry out into the open.”
Faggiano, Taranto, 2013 with Checko’s
Tirano, Sondrio, 2013
Bologna, 2013
Torino, 2013
Torino, 2013
Roma, 2013
Bologna, 2013
Rieti, 2013
Torino, 2013
RIeti, 2013
Menfi, 2013
Menfi, 2013
Terracina, 2013
Gaeta, 2013
Pizzo Calabro, 2013
BUNKER TORINO
A journey through painting and poetry
May 2013, Turin
Guest of Bunker, in Turin.
Opiemme painted the famous poem “The Raven” by E. A. Poe and a letters ball,
a bit of practice before leaving for the journey.
On Artribune
On The Huffington Post
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
TIRANO – VALTELLINA
Sondrio, September 2013
A project by Manuela Colombera for Il Gabbiano, with Studio D’Ars (Question Mark, Milan) and Square23 Gallery (Turin).
Thanks to Livio Ninni for the photos.
“Crossing the bridge that leads to the industrial area you can see a gray building. A former prison. Approaching, one realizes that the structure is not completely gray. On the facade a cascade of colours seems to come from a fireplace. It is Opiemme’s cascade, and I think it can be considered a symbol of the transformation of this building. It is a former penitentiary, and now it literally oozes colours and emotions. The prison, seen from the outside, would seem to be a prison if… Opiemme had not passed by Valtellina.”
Daniel Decia
Artists: Anamaken, Mrfijodor, Corn79, Orticanoodles, Urbansolid Art, Alex Caligaris, SeaCreative, Andrea Ravo Mattonii, Etnik, Opiemme, Akab, Alexander Tenia, Ale Puro, Skià.
GENOA WITH OLIVIA GIOVANNINI
Un viaggio di pittura e poesia
September 2013, Genoa
Rolli Days Festival, Palazzo Rosso
#13 / / on HER own
a performance by Olivia Giovannini
site-specific: Opiemme
Photo courtesy: Donato Aquaro, Luigi Fogliati, Sara Spallarossa, Marco Pezzati
On Artribune
On The Huffington Post
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
ARIANO IRPINO FOLK FESTIVAL – Franco Arminio
August 2013, Ariano Irpino
On the words by poet Franco Arminio.
Pics by: Floriano Cappelluzzo, Mario Covotta
On The Huffington Post
On ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
FAGGIANO JONIO JAZZ FESTIVAL
A journey through painting and poetry
August 2013, Faggiano (Taranto)
JONIO JAZZ FESTIVAL
A tribute to Louis Armstrong painted with Cheko’s Art
On The Huffington Post
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
TO PASCOLI – PIZZO CALABRO MURA MURA FEST
A journey through painting and poetry
July 2013, Pizzo Calabro
MURA MURA FEST
Works:
“This sea is full of voices, this sky is full of visions…”
On words by Giovanni Pascoli
“Butterfly”
Inspired to Arrigo Boito’s “Dualism”
“I am light and darkness; angelic
Butterfly or filthy vermin
I am a fallen cherub
Damned to roam on earth,
Or a rising demon,
Exhausting his wings,
To a far away sky”
“…and sinking in this sea is sweet to me”
The Infinite, Giacomo Leopardi
“Legality Tree”
On Artribune
On The Huffington Post
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
RIETI LAUDES CREATURARUM
A journey through painting and poetry
July 2013, Rieti
Thanks to 3)5 Arte Contemporanea
and the Municipality of Rieti, Opiemme lands in Rieti.
In collaboration with Mother Nature Opiemme realized a site specific based on the Latin words of “Laudes Creaturatum” by St. Francis (San Francesco).
The stencils move through moss and lichens, creating a mural, around 40 meters in length, infused into its surroundings within the Sanctuary of St. Fabian, Sanctuary of the Forest. St. Francis arrived in this beautiful place in September, 1225. There, immersed in the intense emerald greenery of the woods and nurtured by the sound of the springs St. Francis, in all likelihood, wrote Praise of the Creatures.
“Cammino di Francesco”
The second mural is in memory of Antonio Sallustri, the barber of Villa Reatina district, and his love for the sea.
“Venne l’uomo santo e rifuggendo la pompa del mondo e la conversazione degli uomini…”
Anonimo Reatino, Actus Beati Francisci in Valle Reatina, VII, 35, a c. di A. Cadderi, Assisi, Edizioni
Photos: Alessandro Orlandi
On The Huffington Post
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
A PASCOLI E BACCHELLI – BOLOGNA, 2013
A journey through painting and poetry
July 2013, Bologna
“Show me your dog is and I’ll tell you who you are”, Riccardo Bacchelli (Bologna, 19 April 1891 – Monza, 8 October 1985).
After painting a tribute to Giovanni Pascoli, Opiemme is back in Bologna.
Photos: Cristina Principale
Courtesy Elastico Studio Gallery
On The Huffington Post
On ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
TO GIOVANNI PASCOLI’s “X AUGUST” POEM, IN BOLOGNA
A journey through painting and poetry
June 2013, Bologna
A new mural in Bologna, dedicated to Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli (San Mauro di Romagna 1855- Bologna, 1912).
August 10th
Translation Dia Tsung
Saint Lawrence, I know why so many
shooting stars in the tranquil air
blaze and tumble: it is because of the great weeping
in the glittering vault of heaven.
A swallow was retuning to the roof:
they killed her – she fell among thorns.
She held in her beak an insect,
the dinner for her little ones.
[…]
On Street Art Attack (more infos)
On Streets Are Sayng Things (more infos)
A RIVER OF WORDS – REVITILIZING BARCA AND BERTOLLA – TORINO
A journey through painting and poetry
June 2013, Turin
A part of the “Revitilizing Barca and Bertolla” project involved the local merchants, who were invited to chose an artistic happening that would enliven their neighbourhood. The project is now entering its final stage, and the merchants chose the artistic event that combines poetry with street art in the form of an installation by Opiemme. The author classifies the installation, called “A river of words from Barca to Bertolla”, as a “poetic painting”. The installation on one hand will create added value for the neighbourhood, and on the other it will bring its inhabitants closer to art and poetry. All this thanks to Opiemme, an artist and street poet, who will decorate the pavements with a river of words, connecting in this way the two areas with writings on the theme of water — the element that has marked the history of both neighbourhoods, in the past inhabited by washerwomen and boaters. The event was inaugurated in the first week of July and it aims at decorating 7 km of pavements along Strada San Mauro and Strada Settimo.
This initiative was designed to address the need of giving to both of these streets their own character, to establish a connection between Barca and Bertolla and, last but not least, to make use of two busy roads to create a visible artistic event. The project is carried out with the support of the District 6 of the city of Turin, and realized thanks “Bagni Pubblici di Via Agliè”.
barcaebertolla.com
Bagni Pubblici di Via Agliè
On Artribune
On The Huffington Post
ZIGULINE (all stages) (It)
a tribute to E. A. POE’s poem “the raven”, Bunker, Torino, 2013
The project “A travel through painting and poetry” started in Turin, thanks to Bunker.
“The Raven” is one of the first calligram, black shaped with an handmade text, by Opiemme dedicated to E. A. Poe.
The Huffington Post thanks to Brooklyn Street Art
POLARIS STEP09 ART FAIR MILAN
“Solaris” site specific project (4x3m) at “Green Area” of Step 09 Contemporary Art Fair in Milan for Bi-BOx Art Space Gallery. Based on a poem by Maria Ivana Trevisani (Ecopoetry).
On ArtsCharity, China (more infos)
https://www.stepartfair.com/
https://bi-boxartspace.com/
