167/B Street, a street art incubator based in Lecce, Italy, completed the third edition of their 167 Art Project at the turn of the decade. This prominent organization hosts a variety of interventions throughout their southern Italian city, perhaps most notably the Casalbate Street Summer Festival on which we reported in September 2018.
The latest edition of the 167 Art Project employed the talents of two domestic artists who hail from the Apulian territory to breathe fresh energy into Lecce’s artistic landscape. The resulting works from Mesagna-based Millo and Lecce-based CHEKOS Art prove a crucial role in understanding the city’s changing identity.
167/B pulls its name from Lecce’s notable district 167, which the press release says is “undergoing a rapid transformation.” The area’s face is changing as “the new assignments of popular housing are mainly migrant families, therefore the neighborhood is getting richer, becoming more and more multicultural.” 167/B emphasizes that the “new world” embodied by this district “is a place of coexistence and not of exclusion.” In a strikingly succinct sentence I recorded for my own personal inspiration, the organizations declares, “It is essential to work in the present.”
It would be easy for a city boasting so much history to become entrenched in the past, to revolt against the changing structure of their societal fabric. Avoiding this proclivity not only takes the fantastic strength of power that 167/B’s simple statement exhibits, it is also our only hope for constructing a thriving global society. In order to espouse the ideals of this bold coexistence, the statement relays that Millo and CHEKOS used their walls to “pay homage to the children” of present and future generations, “inspired by their innocence, transparency and truth.”
Millo’s work, titled “Wish,” highlights the minute, yet significant manner that every person is interconnected by their humanity rather than their specific history. In a statement provided to 167/B, the artist explains, “My wall stands for this, for a connection that cannot be cut, a tiny red line that links and tie all of us despite the difficulties, despite the twines, we definitely work better when we are not alone.” Millos completed “Wish” in an illustrative style bereft of color, which lends it an anonymity that leaves its overarching principles applicable to every viewer. The only colors on this massive facade are the figures’ clothing and the red thread that connects them, and effect which both drives the point home and leaves the massive work in harmony with a cloud-dotted, blue Lecce sky.
The mural for CHEKOS Art makes an enthusiast, optimistic proclamation: The World is Ours! His work, titled in Italian “IL MONDO E NOSTRO,” draws its inspiration “From a quote from the film “La Haine” by Mathieu Kassovitz which tells the story of three boys from the Parisian banlieue.” The artist’s statement issued to 167/B continues, “Fatou and Andrea embrace each other in a suspended time, as a perpetual warning to the young generations of the future… force ‘adults’ to leave a better world than we`re living now, otherwise… take the world in your hand!” “IL MONDO E NOSTRO” has a painterly quality to it, created by the thick swaths of color plains that lend this large-scale work its depth. Its characters facial expressions truly bring the work to life; Fatou regards the viewer with satisfied self-assurance while Andrea’s exuberance promotes good things to come. Together, these two appear ready to embrace the globe which both their hands connect to.
Such a message only matters if its embraced by an actual populace of people. This hopeful art in a changing Lecce supports the city’s attitude of active acceptance. A press release from 167/B explains that their latest endeavor is supported by “the parish community of San Giovanni Battista, especially in the person of Don Gerardo, and by the cohesion that the cause has arisen among its inhabitants.”
By way of thanks, 167/B also states, “The project was created thanks to the sponsor ‘Caparol.’ which supplies the colors and thanks to the kind collaboration of the ‘Edil Colazzo Network 2012 Group”’of Soleto. In addition, the project is supported by the Ark of Salento which demonstrates, recently, the confidence to grant the walls of public housing, together with the municipality of Lecce which grants us the public land, necessary for the works.” It takes a village to create a world. With this project, and the ideals it espouses, we see how a southern Italian city proves an excellent example in how the greater globe can learn to love together, two murals and one collective heart at a time.
CHECKOS’ Art: website | facebook | instagram
Millo: website | instagram | facebook
167B Street: website | facebook | instagram
