Street artist Tvboy has given the city of Bologna a mural depicting the Emilian singer-songwriter alongside thirteen giants of Italian music on an inflatable dinghy of the kind used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean.
A few days ago, in Bologna, on the corner of via Sabbatucci and via Libia (right "under the bridge on via Libia"), a new mural by street artist Tvboy appeared, among the many others already there.
The work depicts Francesco Guccini on an orange inflatable dinghy reminiscent of those used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean. Alongside him are thirteen fellow travellers: Ligabue, Manuel Agnelli, Malika Ayane, Samuele Bersani, Brunori Sas, Luca Carboni, Carmen Consoli, Elisa, Francesco Gabbani, Giuliano Sangiorgi, Margherita Vicario e Nina Zilli — the guests on the Emilian singer-songwriter's new album, entitled Note di viaggio – Capitolo 1: venite avanti…, arranged and produced by Mauro Pagani and due for release on 15 November.
The mural, commissioned by record label Bmg with permits from the City of Bologna, thus becomes the new cover artwork for the first volume of a collection that will feature songs by Guccini, reinterpreted by some of the greatest names in Italian music.
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It is not only the subject matter that is deeply symbolic, but also the location Tvboy chose for his new work: in Bologna (a city Guccini has long loved and that has inspired him greatly), we find ourselves just a stone's throw from via Paolo Fabbri 43 — the title of a song and of one of the singer-songwriter's most iconic albums (and one of the most iconic in Italian music), as well as the address of his Bologna home at the time the record was released, in 1976.
But there is more: the bridge on via Libia and its surroundings are a complex part of the city — unique and singular. Long home to numerous social promotion associations that over the years have strived to keep it alive and regenerate it, today the spaces beneath the arch where Tvboy's mural stands house Il cerchio della Libia, an association that upholds the value of difference by promoting open projects centred on welcome, integration, solidarity and culture.
On his Instagram profile, Tvboy writes of the work: "When Art — any form of art — manages to make us reflect on the dramatic nature of the events that are defining our times, it has achieved its highest purpose. It is hard to put into words the emotion of being able to give shape and colour to the new musical project of someone I consider a Giant of Italian Music like Guccini. A boat in the middle of the sea that brings together so many Great Artists, but that in the end brings all of us together (…) Long live Music, long live Street Art, long live Art."
Alongside the official mural in via Sabbatucci, Tvboy paid Bologna a further tribute with another work — this time spontaneous and in the city centre (in via San Vitale) — depicting Guccini holding a sign with the words "Venite avanti". "Many of Guccini's songs represent my poetics, which address burning social themes; I liked the idea of putting out a timely message that he too has spoken to in his own way. I hope it's a work that marks a moment and stays in people's memories," Tvboy explained.
Tvboy, the stage name of Salvatore Benintende, is a street artist of Palermitan origins who grew up in Milan. A leading figure of the Neopop movement, he can be considered one of Italy's greatest street artists.
Active since 1996, in 2004 he moved to Barcelona, where he opened his studio and founded the Urban pop art movement. Active "on the walls" across the world, in Italy he became famous in March 2018 when, shortly after the general elections, in via del Collegio Capranica in Rome he depicted the leader of M5s and the leader of Lega sharing a passionate kiss in a work entitled Amor Populi Salvini Di Maio.
Technically, his murals are characterised by posters created by hand in the studio and then pasted onto the walls of cities. His works can be found in the streets of Milan, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Naples, Palermo, Barcelona and beyond. His irreverent and provocative style highlights the contradictions of our times: his targets are politicians, footballers, men and women of power and show business, always reinterpreted through an ironic lens — such as Chiara Ferragni, depicted in via Torino in Milan as a modern pop Madonna with child and holy water, strictly in a bottle.
This Bologna work is not the first Tvboy has dedicated to themes of welcome and immigration: in Florence, in Via dei Bardi, the street artist had put up European Parliament School Report, a work denouncing the European Union's hypocrisy towards migrants that was removed after just a few hours, while La pietà di San Oscar is dedicated to the Open Arms vessel and can be found on the Platja de Sant Sebastià in Barcelona.