CONCEPT45°24'24.6"N 9°16'02.3"E (also known as Viavai) is a site-specific conceptual and visual artwork, a crossover of street poetry, street art and land art.... Read More
CONCEPT
45°24'24.6"N 9°16'02.3"E (also known as Viavai) is a site-specific conceptual and visual artwork, a crossover of street poetry, street art and land art. It is the biggest poem ever published on a street in the world, measuring a 11248 m2 surface.
The artwork lays on the roof of a Sound barrier curtain measuring 600 m of length, 30 m of width and 10 m of height. Due to its location and enormous size it can only be accessed through satellite pictures, drone videos or partly seen from the windows of the surrounding buildings.
The choice of writing a massive poem under such inaccessible condition comes from the urgency of provoking a shock speaking about the area in order to raise consciousness about its problems and status.
The artwork is meant to be a symbolic gift that the artist Mister Caos dedicates to its neighbourhood crossing over different languages and layers of fruition.
Moreover, it aims to set a dialogue with people and inhabitants of the area, questioning the issue of borders, barriers, and suggesting the chance of a reconstruction of a possible meaning.
URBAN and SOCIAL CONTEXT
Di Vittorio street ("La Via", as nicknamed by locals) is a long straight road in the outskirts of San Donato Milanese, a suburban town near Milan. 1 km long, it has only one way in/out and no side roads crossing it. On one side, a stack of high buildings and flats hosting more than 9000 people (about one third of the total town population). The other long side is bordered by a massive uncrossable Sound barrier curtain measuring 600 m of length, 30 m of width and 10 m of height. This architectonical element has always been a physical and symbolic barrier dividing the street from the rest of the city and has played a big role in the process of ghettoization and criminalization of the area in the last thirty years.
Due to its unique shape and complex social history, “la Via” has gained a negative reputation over time and it is usually considered a place without alternatives and a neighbourhood one can only run away from.