In November 2018, urban arts laboratory 167B Street hosted their second edition of 167Art Project in Lecce, South Italy, where the organization is based. The painting event, which was staged “in the heart of the 167B district of Lecce and the football stadium area” reimagines the neighborhood’s various facades as blank canvasses, ripe for artists’ creative projections. This edition featured work by Dimitris Taxis from Athens, Greece and Sabotage Al Montaje of the Canary Islands, whose respective pieces come together to create a joint narrative titled “TERRA e MARE”. A press release by 167B Street describes the resulting murals as “composite plots” that were “driven from a careful sociological reading of the place and surrounding reality.”
“A Brief History of Lecce” published by travel site The Slow Road outlines the history of Lecce’s reality. Hailed as “the Florence of the South” for its “stunning Baroque architecture, gorgeous views of the Salentine Peninsula, and an abundance of Puglia’s famous wine and olive oil,” Lecce shines as the province’s gem with its rich past and fertile abundance. The city’s early history. Lecce became a prized hub of commerce under the Enghien dynasty, who “re-established relations with the Venetian republic” while “exporting wheat, oil, and wine from the fruitful area.”
Both works by Taxis and Al Montaje allude to the place’s intimate relationship with the land. They feature images of the city’s citizens interacting with the environment’s offerings, and portray the importance of this land that has materially provided for its people over the course of numerous governments and centuries. Though this central focus ties the two works together, each artist approaches the moral in their own distinct fashion.
167B Street’s press release describes Taxis’s mural, titled “Viktoria”, as “an almost romantic image with warm and delicate tones presents a woman in the action of picking grapes at the center of a Salentine landscape during the harvest.” The massive work depicts a woman gently cradling a basketful of her harvest under one capable arm, while her other hand holds a few of Lecce’s famous grapes with loving tenderness. Her eyes stare into some distance beyond the painting’s view, lost in contemplation of the scenery. Clear outlines and hatching create a rigid effect, which contrasts the mural’s earthy, organic colors. Taxis’s work ultimately results in “a timeless synthesis that shows, at a glance, the relationship of exchange between man and his environment, inspiring the viewer to enrich the sense of identification with the land, the sense of love to their land and enforcing care for it.”
Al Montaje’s untitled mural depicts another man attempting to reap the land’s benefits, though failing to achieve his true intention. The man sits on a fold-out chair, accompanied by a cooler and bucket to contain the fish he’s trying to catch. Unfortunately, the bucket only holds a colorful pile of plastic bottle caps. A friendly seagull perches on the man’s cooler, watching as he absentmindedly fingers the trash he’s collected with a troubled expression of his face. This succinct, yet strangely beautiful commentary captures viewers’ eyes with its soft style and vivid color scheme. Through this work, Al Montaje displays a “sensitivity to the traditions, to the activity of fishing, and the link with the place, the sea, [that] became [an] artistic pathway to critically express the conflicting dynamics of nowadays.”
This edition of 167Art Project follows the “success and the warm welcome in the previous year’s edition.” It was supported “by the parish community San Giovanni Battista, in particular Don Gerardo,” who requested these beautiful interventions, and entrusted their completion to directors Ania Kitlas and CHEKOS Art. Paint company Sikkens Italia sponsored the project, which was also completed in cooperation with Colori e Sistemi Lecce.Overall, this iteration of 167ArtProject highlights the community’s commitment to beautifying their treasured city, and the work it produced serves an ode to their dream of preserving it.
Dimitris Taxis: website | facebook | instagram
Sabotage Al Montaje: website | facebook | instagram
167B Street: website | facebook | instagram
