Thanks to the collaboration between The Wallà with the University Ca’ Foscarian interesting project dedicated to safeguarding street art from the oblivion of time was born in Treviso.
The first time it was talked about on a mainstream level was for the mural paintings of Keith Haring: the rescue of the works of the American street artist who died at the age of 32 has been entrusted to a team of scientists from the University of Pisa, the city where he painted his last mural All world on the church of Sant’Antonio Abate.
The topic is on the agenda today in Italy, where it is estimated that there are thousands of artists working on a professional level in street art, even if only a few dozen of them are at the level of international fame. A very complicated undertaking. Contemporary wall paintings are in fact made with commercial materials of synthetic origin, chosen on the basis of artistic considerations and not always for their durability; the consequences are sometimes evident, from chromatic variations to the detachment of the paint.
The challenge is to understand the composition of the materials used for a mural and to know which conservation actions to carry out since its origin or during the restoration phase of the painting. In Venice, theCa’ Foscari University he has been studying the phenomenon for about ten years with Professor Francesca Izzo at the forefront. The “Sciences for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage” group for which he works promotes scientific research on street art materials, to study their composition and understand their behavior over time, with a view to providing guidelines for safeguarding and conservation of these works.
At the opening of the fourth season of The Wallà project, a memorandum of understanding was signed which saw the social promotion association Collettivo Bocaverta APS at the table, which is creating a village dedicated to street art in the hamlet of Vallà, the Municipality of Riese Pio X, which supports and collaborates on the project and Ca’ Foscari itself.
The idea is to send teams of professionals during the creation of the next murals, scheduled for this summer. In all, it is estimated that four or five works will be created. These are the confirmed artists who will be the subject of the first studies: Tellas and Pixel Pancho in June, Franco Fasoli in July, Joys and Orion in September.
The Wallà thus becomes a pilot project not only for urban regeneration, but also in the context of the conservation and protection of outdoor mural works”explains Samuele Stocco, secretary of the Bocaverta APS Collective. “We are experiencing how time and environmental conditions deteriorate street art, which is why the implementation of good conservation practices is necessary for the maintenance of the murals created”.
The Wallà project
The Wallà is a participatory urban regeneration project started in May 2021 on the initiative of the social promotion association BocaVerta APS Collective, in collaboration with the Municipality of Riese Pio X and with the patronage of the Veneto Region and the Province of Treviso.
The name combines in a play on words the English term wall (wall) and the town where the initiative takes place, Vallà (a hamlet of Riese Pio X, in the Treviso area). Through the language of street art, the aim is to improve areas of urban decay and create cultural and economic opportunities for the territory, enhancing the properties that are the subject of the artists’ interventions.
The Wallà aims to transform the walls of public and private buildings into canvases for a permanent open-air museum. To date, 17 works in total have been created: 13 on private walls (houses, warehouses) and 4 on public surfaces (elementary school, basketball and volleyball courts) and the initiative is constantly expanding. Each work on average exceeds 60 square meters, it is estimated that to date over a thousand square meters of walls have been redeveloped.
Among others, internationally renowned artists such as Ericailcane, Kraser, Zed1, Zentequerente, Tony Gallo, Vera Bugatti, Alessandra Carloni, Bastardilla, Agostino Iacurci and StenLex. The initiative was also the subject of study of the degree course and the II level Master’s degree in Product Design at the Raffles Milano Istituto Moda e Design, with the aim of developing projects for local companies and the urban landscape.
