Universo. Happy September
Street art at the beach and more cool stuff, in your every-1st-of-the-month newsletter
Hi, how are you?
I’m writing this letter by hand, it’s the first time that I do it and I’m curious to see where this is leading my stream of consciousness -hopefully away from the writing block that, every month, makes it very hard to begin a newsletter.
I’m not quite ready for full-on holidays yet, so this August I’ve been easing myself in with short trips and small street art adventures. I saw all the murals I could squeeze into a day-trip to the beach, I attended my first street art festival in two years (!) and I spent some family time in the countryside (do you remember this place?).
Whenever I was, I’ve always remembered to look up at the starry sky. That’s my favorite thing to do in summer, and also one of the few things that never fails to calm me down.
Man seems merely dust postponed: the sublime as an encounter - pleasurable, intoxicating, even - with human weakness in the face of strength, age and size of the universe.
Alain de Botton
It might sound corny, but that’s all I needed to feel right now. It has been a very quiet summer, yet another one without the usual distractions, so I had definitely too much time for overthinking every little part of my day. Luckily, afterwards, there has always been a brighter night ahead.
Until next month,
Giulia
ps. I’m loving all the street art photos that you are sending me from your holidays, keep doing it!
NEW on the blog!
Street Art at the beach: Memorie Urbane festival in Fondi and in Formia
The Memorie Urbane Festival began in 2011 in Gaeta and has since then brought to the seaside city hundreds of acclaimed street artists, many of whom had their first experience in Italy. Their street art interventions are scattered around 13 villages along the most beautiful stretch of coastline in Lazio, so this time I drove past Gaeta and headed to Fondi and Formia to keep up with my Memorie Urbane street art hunt, eventually ending the day with a well-deserved swim.
NEW on YouTube!
Borgo Universo, street art in a Medieval village in Italy
I escaped the heat in the city and sheltered on the mountains of the Natural Regional Park Velino-Silente, in a medieval village called Aielli, which houses the international street art festival Borgo Universo. Enjoy the video!
Handpicked by yours truly
Stuff I liked this month
Banksy’s Great Britain Spraycation. Need I say more?
Mural of the Month: Once again, I’m sharing a moving tribute to street artist Hyuro, who passed away last year. I knew Tamara and I was shocked when I read the news, so I’m very sensitive to all the murals created as a tribute to her powerful work. This diptych was painted in Angers (France) by Helen Bur and Faith47, two amazing female street artists who drew inspiration from one of Tamara’s original sketches to create this delicate artwork that contains all the characteristics of a classic Hyuro mural:
More beautiful murals have been produced in Oostende (Belgium) for the summer edition of The Crystal Ship festival. My favorite is this one by Chilean artist INTI:
More about this fabulous street art destination in my Oostende Street Art Guide, while for a more personal take on the Belgian street art festival check out the “From the Archive” segment at the end of this email ;)
I’ve binge watched the first season of Lodge 49 and yet I don’t know how to describe it, as it doesn’t resemble to any other show around. It’s the story of an ex-surfer joining a fraternal lodge while trying to deal with his father’s death. What I liked about it is its surrealism, as well as the juxtaposition between the solemnity of the rituals of the lodge’s alchemical philosophy and the down-to-earthness of the characters and their storylines.
This new piece by C215 in my city:
C215, Rome (2021) It’s IBUG time! Check out how to visit this year’s festival, which runs until September 12th in Flöha, Germany. Before the pandemic, I used to join the IBUG team to document the production phase of this amazing urban art festival, and the IBUG Stories I wrote back then are among the articles I’m most proud of. If you have the chance to go, don’t miss it!
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 9 years of blogging :)
Writers Gotta Write
Stuff I write when I’m not here
ARTSCAPY - “Women on the Walls”
Art Opportunities
Artists Open Call
Unruly Gallery, a project by Amsterdam’s graffiti legend SHOE, is looking for visual artists for its upcoming show Post>andalism. Deadline September 17th.
From the Archive
The streets are fields than never die: The Crystal Ship 2018 logbook
“It’s nice to see a familiar face,” I said as I hugged Wasp Elder. It was my first time at The Crystal Ship street art festival in Oostende: I didn’t know anyone, I was unfamiliar with the city, and given my notorious social awkwardness, I was feeling a bit lost.
