Within 24 hours Bologna found itself without the works of one of its best-known artists. Blu erases his murals in protest against an exhibition that will turn them into museum art.
Giant murals blotted out with grey, matt paint. Groups of people, faces masked, chipping away plaster with chisels. This is the fate that befell the works of Blu, an internationally acclaimed street artist, in his own city: Bologna. One might think it was the council stepping in against vandalism — in reality it was the artist himself who organised the destruction of his works, which over the past twenty years had transformed anonymous walls into masterpieces. Behind the gesture lies a refusal to recognise or accept the inclusion of his works in the exhibition Street Art – Banksy & Co., open from 18 March at Palazzo Pepoli in Bologna. A clear and forceful "no" against street art being turned into museum art.
Little is known about the artist, not even his name. It is known that he was born in Senigallia and that he honed his artistic craft in the Emilian capital. He has painted murals all over the world depicting subjects united by a sharp critique of capitalism and money. He supports social struggles, the protection of the environment and the return of public spaces to the residents of urban neighbourhoods.
In 2013 he painted the façade of the Xm24 social centre in Bologna, which had been at risk of demolition to make way for a roundabout. The city council subsequently decided to leave the building intact, thereby also preserving Blu's work. The themes he chose for that mural express his identity as an artist at its most distinctive: an epic battle, inspired by The Lord of the Rings, pitting the forces of evil — those in pursuit of profit — against the forces of good, namely the social movements fighting for justice and freedom.
And it was precisely this mural that, between 11 and 12 March, was — along with others — permanently erased with the help of members of the Xm24 and Crash social centres.
This extreme act followed the "transfer" onto canvas of three of Blu's works for display at the exhibition Street Art – Banksy & Co., which features more than 250 works, including those by Banksy. The aim of the initiative, according to the organisers, is to save the works "from demolition and preserve them from the ravages of time" — in some cases without the permission of those who created them.
"We asked him and he didn't reply," said Christian Omodeo, one of the exhibition's curators, referring to the request for authorisation to use Blu's works. And this is where the fundamental contradiction at the heart of the matter comes to light: who does street art belong to?
Some argue that street art works belong to the owners of the walls on which they are found. In 2013, a Banksy mural disappeared from a wall in London, United Kingdom, and reappeared at an auction in Miami, United States: the building's owner had sold it to an art dealer. Others believe that pieces of urban art belong to the citizens of the places where they were created. Here, however, another doubt arises: do all citizens have an equal right to enjoy them? In 2014, Blu erased the murals he had created between 2007 and 2008 in Berlin's Kreuzberg district, in Germany, to protest against rising property prices that had forced the area's original residents to move away.
Still others believe that the decision about what to do with a work belongs solely to the person who created it. And it is perhaps this idea that drove Blu to act: he does not want to leave institutions free to decide whether, who and how to profit from it. The sharp critique contained in the artist's gesture, disseminated through a post on the Giap blog of the writers' collective Wu Ming, is unleashed with vehemence against Fabio Roversi Monaco, former president of Fondazione Carisbo, the most powerful banking foundation in the city, which is funding the exhibition, and current president of Genus Bononiae, which organised it:
It comes as no surprise, then, to see Roversi Monaco behind the ingratiating arrogance of curators, restorers and cultural functionaries who, under the pretext of a love for street art, find a career opportunity by profiting from others' work. […] Street Art. Banksy & Co. is the symbol of a conception of the city based on private accumulation and on the transformation of everyone's life and creativity for the benefit of a few.
As well as safeguarding the "permanence of these works in history", according to curator Omodeo the exhibition opens the doors of museums to street artists, restoring to their art form "that charge of dissent it no longer had" due to the popularity it had attained. He also points out that the works by Blu on display "will remain with a non-profit association that will not be able to put them on the market".
On the other side stand "those who do not accept yet another removal of a collective asset from public space, yet another fence and a ticket to pay", again according to the Wu Ming post. Because while on the one hand Bologna portrays itself as "the cradle of street art and claims to reclaim it for the art market", on the other it "criminalises graffiti". For instance, by sentencing the artist AliCé to pay a fine of 800 euros for having painted certain walls in the city.
Caught in the crossfire between artists, curators, those in power and institutions, the final choice belongs to citizens — it is up to them to decide how to enjoy street art. Whether by buying an entrance ticket to visit a museum, or a bus ticket to reach the works in the places where they were created.