Street art for human rights: festival kicks off in Rome

Kicking off on March 18 and ending on March 28, 2021 in Rome’s Settecamini and Corviale neighborhoods, Street art for RIGHTS, a festival dedicated to suburbs and human rights through street art.

The initiative is part of Romarama, a program of cultural activities promoted by Roma Culture that brings together the projects selected through the three-year Public Notices curated by the Cultural Activities Department. The Street art for RIGHTS project is the winner of the Contemporaneamente Roma 2020-2021-2022 call for proposals and is carried out in collaboration with SIAE. Organized by the Cultural Ass. Taste and Travel, curated by Oriana Rizzuto, conceived and directed by Giuseppe Casa, the project aims to stimulate reflection through the language of street art on issues of public interest, with a focus on human social, economic and solidarity rights. Street art for RIGHTS adopts the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its goal is to filter the 17 goals through the eye of contemporary art: in fact, it will promote over the three-year period the creation of seventeen wall works by young street artists bringing social, economic and cultural issues to the walls of the capital’s suburbs, in areas known for situations of severe hardship.

Street artists Diamond, Solo and Moby Dick will bring three works to life, and the initiative will span ten days of activities, with meetings, panel discussions and online debates.

It starts on March 18 with an online panel discussion on Street Art for Rights for Sustainability, organized in collaboration with ASviS - Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development. An online workshop/open meeting with the three artists is scheduled for March 22 during which they will explain the birth of their works and the work-in-progress of their realization.

The final unveiling of the works is scheduled for Sunday, March 28, with a day of genre contamination thanks to a series of contemporary circus performances (this year without an audience) at the site of the murals’ creation. Special guests will be Italian street theater company Crème & Brulée and circus artist Irene Croce, who will stage performances of physical theater, fire art and dance. The performances will be streamed live on the event’s social channels.

Diamond has been active since the early 1990s in writing with an elegant and provocative style; his works are characterized by personal reworkings of prints from the ArtNouveau period and ArtNouveau in which street art and formal study merge to create works in which female figures framed by decorations predominate. Solo works rely on his passion, Pop Art, followed by his passion for comic books, manga and cartoons. His superheroes are humanized, placed in everyday life contexts to become the protagonists of the artist’s production. The two will confront issues related to the first two goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, namely Defeating Hunger and Defeating Poverty. Moby Dick, a "pop surrealist" street artist, has become a landmark for his commitment to supporting environmental and animal rights issues with a focus on cetaceans and marine animals. His whales, pink flamingos, rhinos, and giant elephants have toured the world. An activist and animal activist, he has supported numerous environmental associations in his career, including Animal Aid, Animalisti Italiani, WWF, Oceano Mare Dolphin, and Sea Shepherd. The artist will create a mural on the outside wall of the thermal power plant on Via Mazzacurati, dedicating it to the third goal, Health and Wellness.

All street art works will be made with environmentally friendly Airlite paint, a special paint that eliminates bacteria, reduces pollutants such as NOx, SOx, NH3, CO, and lowers surface temperature.

In addition, each year a crowdfunding campaign will be promoted associated with a specific goal to which the proceeds will be allocated. On the occasion of the first edition, Street Art for RIGHTS will collaborate with the Community of Sant’Egidio by dedicating the campaign to help the most vulnerable, the homeless, and people who have suffered in particular from the interruption of activities that have been engaged in fighting hunger and poverty for years.

Street art for human rights: festival kicks off in Rome

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