Street-art tour in Genova
Genoa and surroundings
Redevelopment projects, undercover interventions, singular themes and creativity. In Genoa, street art is alive, from the alleys to the suburban neighborhoods, to the new Ponte San Giorgio.
The stages
SopraelevataShutters all around the alleys
Melina Riccio
Tiler
Certosa and San Giorgio Bridge
The Underpasses
Rewrite the elevated road
There is a project that has rewritten Strada Aldo Moro, the famous overpass called the Sopraelevata. It is a high speed urban road very close to the old houses of the historic center, and it is of fundamental use although someone think it compromises the panorama. The aim of the Walk the Line project, supported by the Municipality of Genoa, was to create a link between the old part of the city and this main artery. 100 artists from all over the world were involved in the reinterpretation of the 100 pylons of Sopraelevata with various styles: graffiti writing, new muralism, stencil, poster art. Main subjects are the sea and the port. The execution of the works was accompanied by a soundtrack composed of 100 tracks, created by the Magellano artistic collective.
The shutters of estates that were confiscated from the mafia
In the caruggi of Genoa, you can easily recognize estate and assets that have been confiscated from the mafia: their shutters are painted with graffiti and phrases that you will remember and which tell much more than many signs. It may happen that you find tourists and school groups looking at them and then continue their journey. Each painted gate refers to the next one. The idea came in 2016 after the confiscation of 44 buildings, many of which are at street level. The shutters have been painted by young artists and the locations have been assigned to organizations and associations. The volunteers of the Libera Francesca Morvillo organize guided tours to discover these confiscated goods and their shutters, all around the alleys of the historic city.
Melina Riccio: painting optimism among concrete
Even a rhyme con animate and make the city colorful. Melina Riccio, street artist, knows it. It's not difficult to find her graffiti in less flashy urban environments, such as near rubbish bins, or at the entrances of an underpass. Near a subway or train stations, or in the dark corners of a traffic island. Carmela 'Melina' Riccio has been decorating the city in her own way for years, writing poems in rhyming couplets, hearts and salvific messages. Sometimes she makes installations with some waste materials and plastic. They are small altars of positivity. By now Melina is famous, from the alleys she arrived at the Pompidou Center in Paris, but she does not care and continues to 'decorate' Genoa in her own way.
Tiler, the tile's street artist
Forty years recently gone by, man, he rarely lets himself be photographed and he rarely relates with other persons or with the press. He always wears a monkey mask. Not much more is known about Tiler, the Genoese 'Banksy' who has been know for half a dozen years. But almost everybody likes his works and his style, as it is undoubtedly original. He does not use graffiti but ceramic tiles as a support for his creations. He has made himself known with tiler works on the walls of his city, Genoa. The subjects of his works are varied, often grotesque characters, such as a Putin representation recently appeared in via XX Settembre. Some other times he chooses fantasy or dream landscapes, but every work leave room for reflections on a highly contemporary topic. The chosen places are different, although he has a particular preference for the historic center.Tiler is highly appreciated by collectors, because of the uniqueness of his mosaic paintings which, once framed together, can become windows onto dreaming worlds.
Certosa looks up
If there is one place in Genoa where street art has exploded in recent years it is Certosa, one of the Val Polcevera district hit by the collapse of the Morandi viaduct, and afterward reborn with the reconstruction of the San Giorgio bridge. There are two projects that are worth a visit . The first one, by chronological order, is 'On The Wall' a project by the Municipality of Genoa conceived by Maurizio Gregorini which has redeveloped the neighborhood. 15 artists, with some of the most important names on the national and international scene, worked on ten facades of buildings. On The Wall's works are positioned at the nodal point of a process of urban regeneration, with the aim of making people looking up again in this neighborhood that has been strongly affected by the events of the last year. The second one is under the San Giorgio bridge, Pintada. It was born shortly after, another urban regeneration project which is still in progress. Four very famous international artists are at work: the French-Spanish couple Dourone, the Spaniard Okuda San Miguel, the Brazilian L7matrix and the Argentinian Francisco Bosoletti.
The underpasses of the vertical city
Genoa, vertical city, also has an 'underground' world that has been interested by a strong urban redevelopment over the years, thanks to the street art. Some of these are underpasses, which are part of the urban history of Genoa. Here the artists expressed themselves even if their work has often had to deal with vandalism. But the results are fascinating. You can visit the underpass between via Canevari and Brignole station, a tunnel in Borgo Incrociati: it is called We lovecolorz. It started a few years ago and have been readjusted on several occasions. Another artistic underpass is in piazza Montano, a beautiful mural by the artist Raffaele Bravaccino: a rainbow flag stands as a symbol of peace, and it is represented together with the Genova's Lanterna, of which beam of light is transformed into an enormous inscription
