yet another challenge. The Municipality of Ancona cleans, they dirty

THE BLITZ

ANCONA The writers throw down the gauntlet to the Municipality. And after having repossessed the Traiano car park, the artists of decay also left their unmistakable signature in Piazza Roma. A red smudge appeared on the mosaic walls of the underground bathrooms. «Sgaro» is written on it, a clumsy spelling or a dialect interpretation of the term “sgarro”. Nomen omen.

The provocation

This is war against the Administration, which last February presented the extraordinary cleaning of graffiti in some symbolic places of Dorica. Various points in Ancona were treated with a special gel, including Piazza Roma and the car park in Via XXIX Settembre. But also Porta Pia. However, the company that carried out the work had already raised the alarm: “they will return”. And in fact they came back. Quickly, given that the wall of the Traiano car park had already been defaced again on 15 March. It is possible that the raid took place the same evening or in any case in close proximity. Because there is no doubt that it is the same hand.

Not only the choice of message on the tip of the pen (or spray can) but also the particular handwriting chosen to imprint it on the walls of the city. Only the color changes, red in Piazza Roma and black in Via XXIX Settembre. For the rest, apart from the dimensions, the two drawings are superimposable. The writing «sgaro» is in fact adorned by what looks like a halo with the letter “o” which stretches out to become the stylized tail of a little devil. Exegesis of the art of degradation aside, the message is quite clear. “Clean as much as you like and we’ll come back anyway” the writers seem to say to those who had set one of their mandate objectives to clean the city of vandals with spray cans in their hands. One small consolation remains: in February he took steps to cover the treated walls with a special patina that will allow the gouges to be washed away with just a high-pressure washer. But how much water and how much money and days of work will we have to spend each time? In Ancona there is an anti-writer ordinance which requires vandals to pay for the cleaning of their “works of art” but so far the provision – which the council would like to make structural – has remained practically unapplied. The last resort is the cameras, now connected to the new operations center of the Locale, at Palombare. Diehards aside, the eye in the sky wanted by the Administration should at least discourage the younger ones, those for whom delinquency is just a prank to laugh about with friends. But cameras can’t reach everywhere. And until there are exemplary punishments, writers will continue to think they are smarter than the law. It’s up to the Municipality to choose whether to let them believe it or (finally) convince them otherwise.

Antonio Pio Guerra

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Read the full article at
Adriatic Courier