Serbian street artist Artez returns to his consistently present motif of reading in his new mural “Floating On A Dream” completed for RestArt Festival in Imola, Italy late last September. “Floating On A Dream” brings the artist’s signature blend of serenity and whimsy to this beautiful Bolognese town situated near Italy’s Northwestern coast.
Artez explains his inspiration for this recent effort’s creation, stating that, “reading can take you on a journey around the world and help you discover places that you wouldn’t believe exist. It can make you start daydreaming or it can make you fall asleep. Crossing the line between reality and dreaming will make the impossible possible, and you might start floating on a dream in a place you have never seen before!”
The blissful character depicted in “Floating On A Dream” resembles a woman present in numerous works completed by Artez regarding the subject of books. Here, she inhabits precisely this delicate space between reading and dreaming. She appears to have just recently dozed off, succumbing to the delicious embrace of an all-consuming daydream. Her book and glasses tumble away from her reclined seat, falling into the ethers as she spreads out to get comfortable. Lush, exotic-looking greenery populates both the scene’s foreground and background. Whether this is the setting of the woman’s reality or dream seems to be left for the viewer to decide, though the tree’s spiny leaves seem to suggest a land other than the mural’s Italian habitat.
In this sprawling, large-scale mural, Artez also continues his recent tradition of paying homage to his dog Iuna, and “those eleven beautiful years of friendship that [they] had,” as noted in the statement released for another recent mural titled “Beautiful Journey”. In “Floating On A Dream”, Iuna stands sentry in the mural’s lower right hand corner, surveying the scene while the woman floats off to another realm.
Artez brings these symbols and his playfully distinct style to this festival alongside two other international artists: Zedz of the Netherlands and Mr. WOODLAND from Germany. In addition, RestArt featured the works of twelve emerging artists from three Italian cities, including Reggio Emilia, Florence and Bologna.
RestArt took place September 14th-16th, 2018, “between the walls of the Liceo Scientifico, the Istituto Tecnico Paolini or the Valsalva Medias,” three of the town’s predominant educational institutions. The event doubled not only as an opportunity to bring a rich variety of art, music and food to the town, but also as a reunion for citizens who “spent long adolescent mornings” congregated in this particular area. The occasion allowed these nostalgic Imolesi “to meet up for a drink or a dinner with old friends and classmates.” Event organizers encouraged attendees, saying, “bring us a memory, a picture, a trace of your passage in one of those three schools: let’s all create a notebook of memories together, let’s go back to school for a day.”
Artez’s work, captured here in “Floating On A Dream”, truly complements RestArt’s central impetus through its focus on the power of the written word and its style of almost childlike innocence. Within these walls, the people of Imola spent countless hours of their carefree youths pouring over their schoolbooks, losing themselves in the stories they told, both real and imagined. “Floating On A Dream” recalls those days, that feeling of relaxed absorption, allowing attendees to not only marvel at its beauty, but immerse themselves in the beauty of days past.
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