Monday, July 26, 2010

THE MURALS OF ORGOSOLO

SARDINIA - SEPTEMBER 2009

In June 1969, at Pratobello, the population of Orgosolo opposed the Italian Army, which had occupied an area of the municipality, until then freely used for cattle farming, with the intention of creating a new military training camp. The army withdrew, but some anarchists from Milan created a mural signed Dioniso. It was the first in Orgosolo. In 1975, Francesco del Casino and some of his students started to paint murals throughout Orgosolo. Nowadays, there are circa one hundred fifty murals, most of them with a political background, which make the village famous...


"CIAO - WELCOME"


"YOU ARE HERE"


"THE VILLAGE"


"GARIBALDI"


"SARDINIAN CLAIMS - Including «Terra ai Contadini», the «Fight of Pratobello», «Il Capitalismo soffoca» and Emilio Lussu, head of the Sardinian Action Party..."


"SARDINIAN PEOPLE - Picture of a «bandito», after Lombroso..."


"TIENANMEN"


"PEOPLE - Including Gramsci, Neruda, Rosa Luxembourg, Charlot..."


"INTERNATIONALISM - Desmond Tutu, Ghandi, Larzac Fight and Salvador Allende"


"PICASSO"


"PAINTERS & PAINTINGS - Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Picasso, «Nullitá della Guerra», 9-11, Saddam..."


"HAPPY THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T NEED HEROES"

56 comments:

Trotter said...

Hi Everybody! This is probably one of the weirdest posts I’ve ever made: a post on a small village famous for its murals, far from the beautiful blues of the sea... ;)). The fact is that surely nobody would care about Orgosolo (well, only a few know it actually...) if there wasn’t this anomalous circumstance that it has more than 150 murals on its walls, most of them showing politically points of view, though not all «politically correct», we may assume... ;)).
Well, if you’re not in vacation, enjoy, have a marvellous week!! If you’re in vacation, you’re already enjoying... ;))

Olivier said...

ces peintures murales sont tous simplement magnifique et elles racontent l'histoire, Ce village est un musée ouvert

Nisha said...

Gil,
That's what I was wondering where all you go to find such locale !!

Indeed it's a different from your usual stuff.
Thanks.

joo said...

It's terrific! I'm not very keen on murals, but some of them are really outstanding!
Your post makes me feel like visiting this place:)
Happy week to you!
Greetings:)

SusuPetal said...

Oh, those wall paintings are just wonderful, so colorful and powerful!!

april said...

How interesting, especially for taking photos. In Northern Italy there is a little town full of murals, too.
Greetings from Cologne,
Ingrid

diane b said...

Amazing collection of murals for one town. The google translator didn't have an English option????/weird.

alicesg said...

It is indeed very interesting to see the murals. That's a whole lot of collection in the village.

Sylvia K said...

That is amazing and very interesting! Definitely a colorful village, although I don't think I'd want it as a permanent home! Your photos are terrific as always! Have a great week!

Sylvia

BLOGitse said...

These are cool!
One picture jumped at my face: Tiananmen Square because I was in Beijing that time! I went to see and talk with the demonstrators. The smell was disgusting - no toilets! I felt so itchy after the visit I had to have a long shower!
That't trip is one I will never forget.
It was great to travel around China before the boom.
Have a great week!

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Orgosolo is certainly very artistic and in the same sense, I presume quite outspoken too!

Loved this post for it's description, which as always is fantabulous!

P.N. Subramanian said...

A different kind of showcasing. Very interesting. Thank.

Daniel Chérouvrier said...

Magnifique et quelle sage declaration " Heureux les peuples sans heros"
Bonjour de Scanie en Suede.

Tinsie said...

How unusual! These are really great and worth seeing. Thank you so much for sharing them with us!

hpy said...

Ca change de la plupart des tags qu'on voit fleurir les murs.

Ron said...

This post is fabulous, I absolutely love the art work. This is something I would love to see in my travels.

Urmi said...

Visiting your blog after a long time. What a coincidence! I have also posted Murals but of India. Please visit my blog. Amazing to see such beautiful and creative murals. All the paintings looks gorgeous and colourful and very impressive.

rochambeau said...

I like this post very much Gil! What an artistic place Orgosolo is. Art imitates life.
The last quote "Happy the people who don't need Heroes" Will be thinking about this one.

Have a lovely weekend to you and your beautiful wife. Enjoy where ever you will be.
xox
Constance

juka14 said...

Wow, I never heard of this place before but they have a beautiful collection of murals.

Pietro Brosio said...

Hello Gil! Thanks for sharing these fantastic murals! Very interesting and unusual post indeed!
Happy Sunday :-)

magiceye said...

they are just wow!

Keir said...

Some fantastic images in the mural, I have always assumed that the rise of fascism went unchallenged in Italy

Gattina said...

Amazing ! and such a lot !!

Chuckeroon said...

Good fun here, Trotter! But not a single shot of Mrs T! That was the only disappointment.

NicoleB, Kuwiat said...

What an interesting piece of history!
Those murals are intriguing and show some insight into what's going on / did go on in that place.
Amazing.

indicaspecies said...

An entire post on murals....fantastic! Happy the people who do not need heroes...;)
Have a lovely day Gil.:)

Lakshmi said...

What an interesting post..some of the murals are quite amazing..I will not call it a weird post, and with your permission, I would like to share it

eye in the sky said...

Eerie and artful! It's a beautiful post!

Anonymous said...

I love that there are so many murals. They all look interesting. Great job capturing them.

Paz

Mariposa said...

how bizzare..great art! You must've had an interesting walk seeing all the pictures :)

A Lady's Life said...

Well you certainly put Orgosolo on the map as a place to visit.
These wall murals are indeed something worth viewing.It's beautiful work and captures history very well.
Good way to teach young people as they walk along the city streets.
Thanks:)

Nikon said...

Great post, Gil - it's a great find!
I love the examples that you've posted - it looks like a fun place.

Anonymous said...

well I can certainly see why it made this little place famous....I wouldn't say it's weird....just very very interesting and fascinating. ~ Lynn Have a great week G

yyam said...

These are really cool murals! So beautifully painted! I've really enjoyed this post! :)

Haddock said...

Interesting.. . . . . and some nice and lively pictures here.

Dina said...

Wow, yes weird. And very strong images.
But so many. Glad our town has not been taken over by mural painters.

Cergie said...

Pourquoi être jaloux, Gil, tu habites un pays qui est une destination de vacances et côtoient tous les jours sans doute des vacanciers (c'est ce que je dis à Hpy), tu n'as pas le désagrément d'habiter sous un autre toit, dans un autre lit et tu as tout ce à quoi tu es habitué sous la main. D'ailleurs je me demande si tu n'aurais pas rencontré récement un vacancier-bloggueur venu de Paris car ce post me fait penser irrésistiblement à lui.
:)
J'aime bien le rocher peint au dessus, pas trop loin de la glissière de sécurité, mais qu'en pensent les autochtones d'être ainsi marqués aux couleurs et aux célébrités du monde entier ?

99 said...

My favorite post of yours!!
Great that Orgosolo people respect the murals and not dishonor their history by scribbling graffiti on them...

I've heard about the Sardegna historic murals but I've never seen such a good collections of pics.
My favorite quote is: "felice il popolo che non ha bisogno di eroi"
Really good post, Gil!

L. Neusiedler said...

absolutelly gorgeous post! all that graffiti! amazing!

Unknown said...

Very absorbing. A little town like this has so much to offer by way of graffiti art.

Regina said...

The murals are really awesome!
Great place and captures Trotter.

Have a wonderful new week.

Thérèse said...

The "tags" authors should all go there and take lessons...
It's really beautiful and full of History!
Hi from Aniane in Herault, France.

Lori said...

Those murals are incredible. You always visit such interesting places!

Indrani said...

Amazing graffiti, each telling a story of its own. Great post.

Joy said...

How very delightful! People in that town certainly are creative and expressive. I love those little alleyways and the colourful houses on the hill.

Can you believe it's Monday again?

Thanks for visiting Norwich Daily Photo and leaving your comment. Come visit again tomorrow!

Emery Roth said...

This is one of the very best posts you've made. I only wish all the photos were full size. I never knew of this place. Well, that's nothnig new for visiting blogtrotter, but this is amazing and beautiful. You could publish a beautiful book of these.

Trotter said...

Hi Folks! The weather cooled down a little bit, work slowed also a morsel and so blogging got its rights back... At least as far as replies are concerned... ;)
Orgosolo got some attention and I thank you for having dropped a line on these. It’s strange enough, a village somewhere in the middle of the mountains that got its share of fame by deliberately creating some beautiful pieces of street art, many of them in direct homage to well known intellectuals... Sometimes culture also pays... ;))

Olivier,
Tu as raison; c’est vrai que la ville, au moins la rue principale et quelques-unes à côté, est un vrai musée à ciel ouvert…

Nisha,
This time was not too hard to find… Just across the Mediterranean Sea and deep in Sardinia island... ;)). I’ll revert to the usual posts one of these days... I know you mean blue sea... ;))

Joo,
I believe that these murals are special; not exactly the traditional graffiti you see much around many towns...

Susu,
Powerful they are, indeed... And some have a very strong political message, even if in some cases not exactly «politically correct»... ;)

Ingrid,
Don’t know which town you mean in Northern Italy... But found Orgosolo an amazing place to see...

Diane,
I don’t think that the Google translator is able to translate what is written in the jpeg files... if you mean translating the Italian from the pictures...

Alice SG,
I’m glad you found it interesting!!

Sylvia,
The village in itself isn’t anything special... However, the way they decorated their street walls is much more interesting than most of the other villages in the neighbourhood... ;)

Blogitse,
So you were in Beijing during the Tiananmen events... Amazing that you remember the experience with the disgusting smell!! ;). Beijing must be much different nowadays... I was there in 2002 and the works for the Olympic Games were already changing the whole town... ;)

Rakesh,
Quite outspoken, as you say... ;)

P.N.,
My pleasure!!

Daniel,
Un beau message pour la fin du post… ;))

Tinsie,
I’m glad that you liked...

Hélène,
C’est vraiment spécial!!

Ron,
Start packing... ;))

S-V-H said...

Excellent!! to post all these murals, Manuel. I wish to see them my self. I like also the idea that the village was accepting and let the artist(s) do this work!! Some sort of very unique, I guess!!!

Other cities don't like to much Graffiti on their walls. But these are artworks and not Graffiti,that's why...

Thanks for sharing, Manuel!

Trotter said...

Part Two,

Babli,
It’s an amazing coincidence that you also posted on murals; and what a fabulous collection you have there…

Constance,
It surely deserves some thinking; maybe life would be much easier for everybody… ;)

Juka,
You’re absolutely right…

Pietro,
Unusual post but truly worth seeing; that’s what I can conclude from your comment… ;)). Thanks!!

Magic,
Wow! That was also my reaction when I saw them…

Keir,
Thanks for your visit and first time comment here. These murals started in 1969 and developed from 1975 onwards… As far as I know, the March on Rome took place from October 27th through October 29th, 1922…;))

Sonal,
Thanks for your visit and first time comment here. I’ve visited your blog!

Gattina,
They have more than 150 murals along the main street (and also some side streets) in the village…

Stuart,
Ah, ah… You missed the central picture of the collage on Painters and Paintings… ;))

Nicole,
That’s truly what I feel they are intended to… ;))

Celine,
Don’t you think it’s a wonderful sentence?

Lakshmi,
It’s amazing! More than by the quantity of the murals (some 150 in total, it seems…), I was impressed by the quality of the paintings…
Please feel free to share the post as you wish!

Eye,
Thanks! Quite peculiar, indeed…

Paz,
There are some books on the many murals in Orgosolo… It’s interesting, because some of them show murals that are no longer there. Probably erased by the time and by the lost of significance of the matter…

Mariposa,
It was a long walk in a hot afternoon… ;))

Trotter said...

Part Three:

Lady,
I think they had already put Orgosolo in the map, when they created the murals… I was just the instrument of publicity; and regarding the figures of the visitors to this blog, not a very effective one… ;)) It’s amazing that the old Blogtrotter, closed for a long while, has at least three times more visitors than this one… ;))

Paul,
Carefully chosen, the examples to post… ;))

Lynn,
Probably not weird; but it’s at least unusual to see so many murals deliberately created and to a large extent, peacefully accepted… At least that was the feeling I captured when going there. Maybe the revenues of tourists help a little bit… ;)

Yvonne,
Cool!! That’s something at a premium nowadays, with temperature raising to the high thirties (Celsius) again… ;))

Haddock,
Thanks for coming back and commenting here after a long, long time… ;)

Dina,
Sometimes it’s better to have some murals of quality than grey walls around town… ;))

Lucie,
C’est vrai qu’il y a des touristes partout… Vraiment, en août, quand tous les résidents (sauf deux… ;)) sont partis en vacances, au moins pour l’Algarve, il n’y a que des blondes et blonds dans les rues… ;). Et Guida, qui travaille sur une des places principales de la ville, côtoie toujours des centaines de touristes qui veulent prendre un café dans la place où Fernando Pessoa le faisait, il y a 80 ans… Mais, tu sais, comme nos ancêtres (pas les Gaulois de l’île de la Cité…) marins, j’aime beaucoup plus le plaisir de la découverte que le plaisir de l’habitude… ;))
En ce qui concerne la rencontre des blogueurs, on a eu un merveilleux dîner hier soir… Et les gens d’Orgosolo semblent cohabiter bien avec les peintures murales… ;))

99,
Thanks! It’s true that, maybe also because it proves to be a source of income, people there do keep the murals as they are… In the beginning, and still today, murals are supposed to have a spontaneous, collective and ephemeral nature…
That quote is obviously the end of the story…;)

Lara,
I don’t think they would call it graffiti, but never mind… ;)

Keats,
Hi there! Everything ok? I thought they had a bit more than 150 murals at Orgosolo, but Wikipedia states 400… ;))

Regina,
Thanks!

Thérèse,
They should take lessons on the paintings, as they are intended for discussion… I wonder how the authors would face opinions dissenting from their own viewpoints…
Aniane in Hérault? Tu es allé voir les 19 Festivals en Pays Cœur d’Hérault? ;))

Lori,
Except New York; long time without getting there… ;))

Indrani,
And the stories they tell… ;)

Joy,
Well, the story is that in 1975, Francesco del Casino, a Professor of drawing in Siena, comes to the village after seeing the film Banditi in Orgosolo. For two decades, together with his students and speaking with the inhabitants of the village, he made many paintings, some in a style inspired by Picasso. The API ("bees"), a group of Casino’s alumni, mainly made up of women, took then over, still with the political intention to paint materials for discussion. Today, artists from the village and from Italy, Germany, France or elsewhere continue to paint on the walls…

Ted,
Thanks!! If your interested I may pass the pictures full size to you; but you’ll need a gmail address, as they are very heavy… There are some books on Orgosolo, but actually not top quality… ,)

Trotter said...

Sue,
Quite unique!! I know not of any other place where mural painting has been an asset taken as such by the community...
That's true: these aren't graffiti!!

[G@ttoGiallo] said...

Un sacré travaul de documentation, bravo !

Trotter said...

G@tto.
Merci!!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

I found these murals fascinating to see Gil! Thank you for doing such a good job photographing them all. They do appear to be politcal in nature and perhaps a good way at the time for people to get their opinions heard?
We see some examples of murals like this in NYC -usually memorials to people killed by violence or accidents, alos some patriotic and some radical.

Emm said...

I love this post!!! These murals are fabulous!! I will be putting up a graffiti post soon too, about the graffiti in Serbia. Not as pretty but interesting nonetheless.

Trotter said...

Pat,
That's what some are intended to: express political views; others just pay homage to writers and painters, but mostly connected with a certain «Weltanschauung»...

Emm,
Amazing that you found also some murals in Serbia!!