Eleven murals plus one: in the San Paolo district a new work will be added to the eleven already created and inaugurated in recent days as part of the SanPArt urban redevelopment project, promoted by Doc Creativity and Studio Planning Idea.
In fact, work has begun on the creation of a new mural, with a very special theme. Visible from Viale delle Regioni 15, the work, among elements that recall the neighborhood and music, is dedicated to the Bari rapper Walino (stage name of Nico Antonacci), who passed away in July 2023. The Rimini street artist is at work “Mozone”.
How did this initiative come about? Everything – explain the promoters of the initiative – began through dialogue with the municipal administration and during the Rap and Writing workshop, organized as part of the project, at the Casa delle Culture. It is here that the SanPart work team met the parents of the late rapper, who were accompanying their grandson to the music laboratory lessons. Little by little, during the various activities that were held in May, Walino’s parents had the opportunity to talk about the artist’s commitment, how well-liked he was in the neighborhood, how much he felt the need to tell it through songs of him. Several times, during the work on the eleven murals, the SanPart team came across Walino still alive in the memories and stories of those who live in the San Paolo district. The finalization of the twelfth mural was therefore made possible thanks to the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Bari which strongly supported this special project.
In addition to Walino’s stage name, drawn in large letters on one of the two walls, Mozone is enriching the mural with elements that immediately recall music, from the piano to the microphone. Born in Rimini in 1980, Filippo “Mozone” Tonni approached painting in a casual way thanks to innate talents, since he was a child and always self-taught. He carries out technical studies first, graphic-artistic studies later, always having drawing as a strong point. He came into contact with graffiti as a teenager in the early ’90s, seeing tags and “pieces” of the old Rimini, Italian school and important conventions of the time. Since then he has pursued a personal path that started with writing (bombing, lettering, characters), which over time has naturally been contaminated with illustration, graphics and analogue photography. Mozone’s favorite subjects harken back to old Italian and French comics, to the glories of Japanese cartoons of the 70s and 80s, to old cars, to b-movies, to subcultures, to unlikely subjects or particular characters. Non-conceptual works, but direct, not pop, but certainly recognisable, with a sometimes ironic, sometimes cynical streak. Thanks to ties with other artists on the Italian and European scene, he has participated in various international conventions, events, fairs and exhibitions related to graffiti and urban and contemporary art, in Italy and abroad; he is a member of artistic collectives in Italy (Rimini, Milan) and France (Bordeaux).
SanPART, winner of the public notice “Urban Art”, promoted by the municipal department of Culture and Tourism and financed with 200 thousand euros by the POC METRO (POC_BA_I.3.1.m sheet), allowed the creation of eleven murals and creative workshops , with the participation of internationally renowned artists and the active involvement of the residents of San Paolo.
