the street is our gallery

The last mural painted by Zed1 for the Veregra Street Festival in Montegranaro is titled “Un viaggio per le stelle” / A trip around the stars.

Just like Zed1 taught us from his artworks, his walls aren’t simple drawings. They transform into imaginary illustrated fairy-tales that are capable of giving us the keys of multiple ways of understanding.  His characters animate in front of our eyes, narrating fables that always come with a moral.

“Un viaggio per le stelle” is the story of a dream that becomes the truth.

Based on the architectural structure of the movie theatre “La Perla”, on which the mural stands,  Zed1 decided to divide the fable into separated scenes, each one related to a specific area of the theatre. He wanted us to look at the mural as if we were watching various piles of boxes abandoned in in a broom closet or an old basement.
The artwork is intended to be read from left to right, ending on the highest set of the theatre.

– The first part of the artwork is entitled “Quei tesori nascosti in cantina”, hidden treasures found in a basement.

We find boxes and accumulated objects inside a basement where a young lady is standing. On the left side, we can spot a nice dress and a pair of ballerina shoes. More to the right, there’s a telescope and a book entitled “Una vita da danzare”, a life to be danced away.

The young lady holds the book and, metaphorically, finds her passion for dancing through the discovery of these objects.

-The second part of the artwork is entitled “La visione di un sogno”, a dream’s vision. The young lady, here, is craving for success. She looks at the stars with her telescope, dreaming to become a well-known dancer, but she finds herself in a weird position: she’s already wearing her new ballerina outfit, while she still has her old clothes on, from which she hasn’t yet separated.

-The third part is entitled “Sfiorando il cielo”, lightly touching the sky.

The young lady has obtained what she was dreaming for: we can spot her on a pile of boxes, some of which she’d found in the old basement. She’s used the boxes to climb up the sky and grab those desired stars.
This part of the story teaches us about the importance of being able to restructure our lives in order to reach the goals that we had once placed.

-The fourth and last part of the tale is named “Smarrirsi tra le stelle”, getting lost around the stars.

The young dancer is surrounded by a clear sky and the starts are burying her body and her face.  Even though success has come, she can’t breathe because of that.

By doing so, Zed1 has represented the dark side of success, which is able to make us lose the track of our paths, if it’s not handled in a proper way.

The moral of the whole tale teaches us that, by dedicating our lives to the realization of our dreams, it is important to work hardly enough, but also to keep our feet back down on the ground, finding the balance that doesn’t make those dreams become our failures.