Summer edition. Happy August
CVTA' Street Fest and more cool stuff, in your 1st-of-the-month newsletter.
Ciao,
how are you?
This month I’m writing you from Sardinia :) I’m spending one month working remotely from a little village in the north of the island, switching between job assignments and day trips to abandoned places, former industrial sites, and many, many murals -both new and old, as Sardinia’s old mural art tradition has no equal in Europe.
The change of scenario inspired me, and the fact that I want to see as much street art as possible made me more productive; on the days blocked for working, I stayed focused so that I could then go exploring or enjoy a few hours at the beach.
This month also marked my 38th birthday, but, this year, I’m not in the mood for assessments. Honestly, I live with the impression that anybody else is accomplishing more than me. Also, I’m once again very annoyed at Instagram, and to keep creating content when I’m so frustrated with the platform I’m creating content for is the recipe for burnout.
Luckily, I have this algorithm-free space here to connect with you and talk about common interests without stressing over strategies and engagement. As the Make Instagram Instagram Again campaign recently went viral, I felt so glad I’ve invested my time and energy in this monthly newsletter rather than on social networks.
I’m so happy of what we have here :) To celebrate this creative community of ours, in this month’s “Handpicked by yours truly” segment, I included two shout-outs to readers of Blocal’s newsletter; be sure to check out their creative projects.
That’s all for now! If you are going to Sardinia this summer, check out my murals + urbex itinerary in the video below (or on Instagram, where you can save it for a future trip). Articles on the blog will come soon(-ish), but meanwhile, I’ve got you covered with a two-and-a-half-minute long, horizontal video with a long, wordy, detailed caption (precisely what Instagram doesn’t want me to do and keeps penalizing me for, but -ehi- helping you in planning your trip is more important than what Instagram wants).
Until next month,
Giulia
ps. since we are at it, here is something about Gmail’s algorithm (that, unfortunately, applies to more email providers): it truncates this newsletter after an “email length limit” that apparently I’m not taking seriously; I receive several messages from readers looking for content such as my travel maps, which are at the bottom of every newsletter. The trick here is to click on “View Entire Message” or “Message Clipped” or similar to read the full newsletter.
And now, go and enjoy August’s newsletter ‘till the very last word! hahaha.
Before getting started, a warm welcome to the new readers! If you just landed here from the web, or a friend forwarded Blocal’s letter to you, subscribe below!
New on the blog
CVTA’ Street Fest: Unforgettable street art in Italy’s forgotten countryside.
Reporting from the streets of Civitacampomarano, a little village in southern Italy where Italian street artist Alice Pasquini has been curating an excellent street art festival since 2016.
As anticipated in my latest newsletter, this month I’m telling you more about my time in Civitacampomarano, a medieval village in Molise, the Italian region that “doesn’t exist.” The region of Molise has become the punchline of Italy’s national joke (“Molisn’t”, if you want) given its small size and underrated landscapes. Nevertheless, it has become prominent lately thanks to several high-quality street art projects that have put Italy’s last great unknown on people’s radar.
New on Youtube!
Ten lesser-known spots to see in Sardinia if you love street art and urbex.
You somehow stumbled upon my blog and subscribed to the newsletter, but you have no idea who I am and how my blogging journey has unfolded so far? Here I share the ups and downs of my first 10 years of blogging :) Wanna support my work? Here is a big button for doing so:
Handpicked by yours truly
- Ericailcane painted this stunning mural to celebrate the circle of life, which regenerates and evolves despite man-made disasters. This mural kicks off the first edition of Cagliari Urbanfest, a Sardinian urban art festival of which I’m a media partner, meaning that I’m bringing you there in the first week of October ;)
- One more from Sardinia: Tellas completed a beautiful staircase at the abandoned mine “L’Argentiera” one the day before I visited the former industrial site. As usual, Tellas’ motifs and patterns are inspired by the elements of his island, in this case, the vegetation of the area and the precious minerals extracted from this mine in the past.
- Yet another mural I’ve crossed paths with this month: the majestic “Fossil fuels the war” by BLU in Campobasso (IT). I’m posting here a work-in-progress pic I took while driving back home from Civitacampomarano so that you can see the process of this great Italian street artist (and anyway, the web is full of final photos of this mural, so I thought I could share something unique)
- Things aren’t inherently good or bad; it all depends on how we view them. This is the message behind the newest mural by Escif and Mister Kern in Valencia (ES). It tells the story of a local legend about a farmer replying wisely, “You’ll never know,” to his neighbuors commenting on his supposedly good or bad luck as he went through life.
- This intervention by Portuguese artist MaisMenos:
- “We have the mic” is short doc film on approaching mental health concerns through street art and community art projects. I’m happy to have received this video from someone who took part in the project and who happens to read this newsletter.
- My friend and fellow street art blogger Disagian sent me his second urban guide of Milan, which focuses on the Ortica neighborhood. The format is super cool; it reminded me of old-school fanzines -in high resolution. Have a look here, and if you understand Italian, check out his blog too.
(I always love learning about your creative projects, keep sharing!)
- If you are in Berlin, don’t miss the exhibition “Werbepause” on the art of Subvertising. Some of my favorite street artists are on show there, send me a pic if you manage to visit the show ;)
- You can watch the official after-movie of the street art festival Nuart Aberdeen 2022 here:
- This test will determine your creative type (I’m an innovator, what about you?). Taking this test is the ultimate visual trip, graphics and animations are mesmerising, you might want to click on that link only to check those out…
- I’ve been vegetarian for one year and a half and, although I do not flaunt it, this month, I want to share an article on the climate opportunities of a plant-based diet; give it some thoughts…
ps. Is eating vegetarian a topic you would like me to cover, either here or on the blog? I’m collecting traditionally veg recipes and restaurant recommendations as I travel, but I haven’t shared any with you because I don’t want to go off-topic… Let me know!
- This month I’ve read “Idol” by Louise O’Neill, which I bought after reading tons of good reviews. I found out I like stories exploring the duplicitous world of online influencers (can you recommend some?), while I started to enjoy the story less when it became a thriller. Anyway, I needed a page-turner to bring to the beach, and this book did its job.
- I’ve also re-read “The invisible cities” by Italo Calvino, a surreal book that has tickled my imagination since childhood. I love books that give you new insights every time you read them, and this one is a never-ending collection of urban images.
Stuff I do when I’m not here
The Italian graffiti and urban art blog “Another scratch in the wall” asked me some questions about my time at Nuart Aberdeen festival. The interview is in Italian, but I’m dropping the link just in case…
Open calls for artists
Today (August 1st) is the last day to apply for Meeting of Styles Taiwan. Meeting of Styles is a graffiti art festival organized in many countries worldwide, so if you can’t make it to Taiwan, check out the other locations on their website.
Apply before August 7th to paint a wall about nature, sustainability, and climate change at Rural Mural Art Project. The festival takes place in Tornesch, Germany.
To paint at Big Walls Big Dreams in Houston, Texas (USA), you have time to send your application by August 15th.
The lovely people at Gallery No. 32 are now taking submissions of outdoor sculptures for their 3rd annual Winter Sculpture Park. Apply before September 18th.
From the archive: My second dispatch from Ibug 2018
New artists joined the IBUG family (and then turned it into a Latin Mafia gang)
The loudest, hard-to-ignore new participants of IBUG Festival 2018 were the self-proclaimed Latin Mafia gang. As soon as they arrived, they claimed their rooms by hanging Mexican and Brazilian flags on the broken windows of the abandoned factory. Shortly after, buckets filled with ice and beers have appeared next to the ones with paint and Latin rap music has gained ground through the empty rooms of the former factory. During Latin Mafia’s night ridings, an Argentinian, two Greeks, an artist from the Independent Republic of Canary Islands and an Italian (me) were recruited.
BTW, this year the IBUG Festival is finally back in full swing! It takes place at Buntpapierfabrik, an abandoned paper factory in Flöha, Germany. Festival weekends are: August 26th - 28th and September 2nd - 4th. Once again I’m a media partner of the festival, but I don’t know yet when / if I will be there. Anyway, hit me up if you are planning to go ;)