the street is our gallery

New perspectives for the “Alfonso Gatto” high school in Agropoli for the “Urban Area” project. It opens up like the pages of a book on the facade at the entrance of the “A. Gatto ” high school in Agropoli, Province of Salerno, Southern Italy.The new mural painted by the Venetian artist Manuel Di Rita, a.k.a. “Peeta”, reformulates the architectural composition of the building, giving a different perception of the landscape and urban context to the students, teachers, to the citizens of Agropoli and the passers-by that use to crossing daily there.

Not just a painting, but a re-elaboration of this pre-existing architecture, decomposed and recomposed through a meticulous study of the building and the environment around it.

Peeta tells the town of Agropoli suspended between land and sea, history and modernity.

The mural intervention completed in recent days, has been realized thanks to a choral work: in the first place the director of the highschool, Fortunato Ricco, who has grasped the desire of the students to call an artist to paint a mural in their school. Afterwards the association a.DNA, already active in this Province with the “Urban Area – A Scena Aperta” project since 2014, was invited to elaborate a proposal for some external wall sites of the “Gatto” High school. a.DNA, in fact, produced significant mural interventions in public spaces, especially school buildings of the Salerno and Roman areas.

The proposal became into Peeta’s invitation, shared with all the entities involved.

The students had a gradual introduction to the project, starting with a first meeting with Mirko Pierri (art curator of the a.DNA association): an approach to graffiti, street art and contemporary urban art for all the 1000 high school students.

Later, during the whole process of the work and with the help of the teachers, Mirko Pierri invited the pupils to observe the artist at work to explain the numerous steps necessary for the complete realization of the wallpainting: from the draft to the not simple reproduction on the wall.

The result is an anamorphic artwork, that extends over four different facades of the building, of approximately 300 square meters, visible from an observation point, chosen by the artist on the right of the internal threshold for the pedestrian entrance gate: the access at the main square of the High School.

A wallpainting in which the passerby loses himself, drawing a new visual identity from his familiar landscape, now completely distorted, while maintaining recognizable connotations and numerous references to the real morphology of what surrounds the painted forms, rather integrating them as part of the artwork.

A book that opens up with colors and geometric shapes, building a link with the place: the High School where you learn and give culture, the city of Agropoli, full of modern elements in contrast with the historical architecture of the center and the Angioino-Aragonese Castle.

There’s a wanted parallelism between the perspective games created by Peeta and the new perspectives that open up in the lives of the boys who study in that high school and that one day will leave it, to face new experiences elsewhere.

a.DNA – contacts:

e-mail: [email protected] > instagram/twitter: @a_dna_project

facebook: @a.DNA collective – @URBAN AREA

a.DNA says thanks to:
– Liceo Statale “A. Gatto” di Agropoli

” Peeta “:
www.peeta.net
fb: www.facebook.com/Peeta-246743535365055/
instagram: @peeta_ead

– institutions:
Regione Campania
Provincia di Salerno
Comune di Agropoli
EPT Salerno

– technical partners
Colori & Colori di Tiziano Stabile
IVC, Antica Signoria, Hex – work in colors
Gruppo Di Donato
Elevateur srl

– main partners
Prota srl
GeM – frozen

– sponsors:
Plasticart
Ristorante Pizzeria da Ciccio
La Sciabica Ristorante

– media partners:
I Support Street Art
ziguline
Widewalls
Radio Booonzo

– video editing:
Piero Oronzo ( Overview videomaking)
musics Carmine Palladino aka Scissor

– Project manager and curating
Mirko Pierri (a.DNA collective)

– Graphic & web communication
Sonia Di Santo (a.DNA collective)

– Press Office:
a.DNA project
e-mail _ [email protected]
Tel _ +39 3401649020