Today we're going to discover a lesser known Veneto: that one of street art. Veneto is a region rich in murals, from its mountain villages to the most famous cities.
Must-see street art in Veneto
Street art in Veneto has redeveloped, bringing joy and colour, the peripheral areas of big cities, such as Padua, the center of small villages, including Cibiana di Cadore, parks and roadsides. In this article we have collected for you the most significant places where you can admire the works of urban art in this region. You will find works by young artists from Veneto, but also more famous names, such as the English writer Banksy. An itinerary along the villages and cities that wanted to give voice to young talents to enhance their territories.
Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't listened to
The colourful village of Cibiana di Cadore
In the heart of the Dolomites, at an altitude of almost one thousand meters, lies the small village of Cibiana di Cadore, a town of just 450 inhabitants. Protected by its high peaks and far from the more mundane tourism of nearby Cortina d'Ampezzo, in Cibiana you can still breathe the air of a real place, of simple people, where the passion for mountain life has never waned.
One of the main reasons why tourists from all over the world come to Cibiana are its murals. In fact, since 1980, more than 50 frescoes have been painted in the village, creating a veritable open-air museum, which has earned the village the nickname "Land of Murals" or "Land that tells its story". These paintings, made by authoritative artists who came not only from Italy but also from Japan and the former USSR, are scattered on the walls of the houses and tell their story. Each mural, indeed, represents the history of the house on which it is painted: on the house of the carpenter there is represented exactly this profession, as well as for the miller and for the blacksmith.
The Street of Murals in Tarzo
In the municipality of Tarzo in the province of Treviso, precisely in its hamlets of Fratta and Colmaggiore, located along the shores of Revine Lakes, we find the Street of Murals, a path along which you can admire the famous murals painted over the years by various artists from Veneto and dedicated to emigration and popular culture.
The project was born in 2008 on the initiative of the Pro Loco of Tarzo, with the aim of enhancing the territory; since then, 15 murals have been realized, which are placed side by side to older frescoes, some even dating back to 1500. These works tell, with a simple and direct language, the stories of daily life of the past lived by the inhabitants of the area in a really suggestive and fascinating path.
The Street of the Murals in Terzo can be covered on foot starting from the village of Fratta and continuing to Colmaggiore or vice versa. The route, almost 2 kilometers long, has a duration of about half an hour.
Arcugnano
In Arcugnano, in the province of Vicenza, you can find many street art works on many municipal buildings. The facades of the gymnasium, a part of the classrooms of the middle school "Foscolo", the walls of the nursery school "Munari" in Torri, the Enel tower in S.Agostino and the facade of the elementary school "Mistrorigo", have been decorated by world famous urban artists, including the Spanish Okuda San Miguel and the English street artist Masai. The project of the municipality is to continue to expand the number of murals in the country.
Padua and Super Walls - Biennial Festival of Street Art
Padua is a city that really offers a lot when it comes to street art. Urban art in Padua has two purposes: that one of urban requalification and regeneration and that one of tourist interest. For example, Arcella, a multiethnic district, once a working class neighborhood, is probably the best known area of the city when it comes to urban regeneration in this territory. Among the several murals the works of the Paduan artists Kenny Random, TonyGallo and Alessio-B. are definitely noteworthy.
Not surprisingly, in 2019 the cities of Padua and Abano Terme hosted the first edition of Super Walls - Biennial Festival of Street Art, an initiative that saw the participation of Italian and French artists and that had as its objective the redevelopment of the urban and suburban territory through the cultural contribution that this art form is offering around the world. This year (2021), during the second edition of the event, the largest work of street art in Italy was created by the French collective La Crémerie: the municipal water system in Via Bottazzo in Padua, managed by AcegasApsAmga.
Banksy in Venice
In May 2019, to general amazement, a mural by artist Banksy appeared among the calli of Venice, with perfect timing for the opening of the Biennale. Banksy's mural in Venice depicts a child wearing a life jacket and holding a flare, a work dedicated to the sensitive issue of immigration. To see it you must go to the Dorsoduro district, near Campo Santa Margherita and from the bridge near the Santa Margherita Pharmacy you will have a perfect view of the work.
