FestiWall has just wrapped up their second street art festival in Ragusa, Sicily. Five large murals were painted by five international street artists including Hyuro, Evoca1, SatOne, Augustine Iacurci, and Fintan Magee. FestiWall aims to activate urban regeneration with positive awareness.
For the 2016 Edition all the walls were painted in a well-defined area of Ragusa. The district, known locally as “Wild” is an area for public housing. In the 1980’s the area was built upon with large ugly residential buildings and for years been synonymous with urban decay.
Hyuro paints “Uno donna libera/A Free Woman” for Festiwall.
“This wall pays tribute to Maria Ochipinti ( 1921-1996 ) militant pacifist, anarchist, feminist, a woman who can be´hardly labeled, recorded in Sicilian history as an emblem of Sicilian women’s protest in the mid-forties.
Maria Occhipinti’s life has not been easy, her quest for freedom and struggle against all kinds of injustice forced her to be uprooted, to move like a nomad without a home. A life full of pain and loneliness, a woman who, by her way of thinking, was marginalized by her people, one of the reasons why she had to live her life in exile. The journey was for her a way to affirm her own freedom, to revolt against bourgeois normality. Maria was a woman who always remained firm in her convictions, sacrificing her life for ideas that went beyond herself, it is her humanity that always prevails in all her actions.This wall speaks of her passion, her freedom and greatness, but it also represents the incomprehension, abuse and marginalization she had to live with all her life.” Hyuro
Evoca1 paints “Resistenza di Incertezza/ Resistance of uncertainty”. This mural is part of “Through the perils of our youth”, a series based on the experiences we endure through our lives that help shape who we are. This is the last mural of this series that will conclude in his next exhibition. For the festival Evoca1 paints a young girls balancing apples in her arms and one on her head. You can feel the tension in the mural, if the girl doesn’t keep her balance then the apple on her head will drop, but with her hands full she will not be able to catch it. The apple on the head image also promotes references to a Skillful marks-person being ordered to shoot an apple off their own child’s head with a bow and arrow!
SatOne paints “Neighbours Envy”on this huge building. Envy because of the street art or envy because of the land surrounding the building!
Augustine Iacurci paints “Building” in his signature style focusing more on objects and different elements, thus leaving aside the iconic characters. Augustine Lacurci paints a series of vases on top of each other, in perfect balance, all different in size and pattern. Intertwined between the vases are birds and vegetation, and ontop of the vases an egg. Signifying new beginnings.
Fintan Magee closes the festival with the last wall to be painted. Fintan Magee mural is titled “The Gardener” lost between the concrete buildings built in the 1980’s. The gardener is growing oranges between the cactus plants reiterating the festivals aim to regenerate.
Festiwall has finished now and we look forward to next years festival…