New artistic intervention by Ischia Street Art, the most provocative of those implemented so far by its gallery owner/founder Salvatore Iacono, in support of contemporary art and in denunciation of the current situation in which it finds itself.
Iacono, a gallery owner, activist, and performer well-known on the island and beyond, staged his death this time by spreading a clearly provocative funeral poster through the streets of Ischia, immediately sparking dismay among friends, relatives, and acquaintances, who promptly flooded his Facebook page with hundreds of messages of condolence.
An extreme performance that is part of the numerous interventions of social denunciation carried out throughout the year by the now famous gallery owner, tired of an entire year spent without working, with the gallery closed due to government restrictions and without support from the Italian State. A denunciation in support of the entire cultural sector and in defense of all Italian art galleries, closed since March 2020.
“You use a glass mirror to look at your face and you use works of art to look at your soul”. Thus begins, with a quote from the multifaceted Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, the new urban intervention, one of the most provocative so far implemented by the well-known gallery owner of Ischia Street Art, in support of contemporary art and in denunciation of the current situation in which it finds itself.
And the personality of the activist and performer Salvatore Iacono, the creator of this new staging, is also multifaceted. He is a very prominent and controversial figure on the island and beyond, and at dawn on Monday 29 March, he lets a classic funeral poster appear on the streets of Ischia, accompanied by a personal photo (on the right) and a painting by the activist Mimmo Di Caterino (on the left), reporting the news of his own death, disconcerting and unexpected, arousing surprise and dismay in his fellow villagers and acquaintances, who immediately flooded his Facebook profile with messages of condolence.
“Gallery owner, activist and performer Salvatore Iacono passed away suddenly after a strenuous opposition to the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic that have severely affected the art and art gallery sector. He is remembered by his artists, friends and collaborators. The funeral will be held privately and the ashes will be kept in the premises of the Ischia Street Art gallery in Forio in via Costantino 28. Visits and flowers are waived.”
Thus continues the aforementioned manifesto, completely realistic and credible, if it were not that to a careful eye and to the gaze of those who follow the work of Ischia Street Art and are informed about the type of artistic interventions implemented by its founding gallery owner, the provocative intent does not escape, to denounce the stasis in which art is slowly dying. Because in fact, even if Salvatore Iacono is alive and well - and he is keen to let it be known by explaining, on the same Monday morning, through a post that appeared on his social networks, the social purpose of the performance - in some ways he is, and feels, dead for the institutions and for a State that, for over a year now, continues to ignore his requests, which are nothing other than the needs of an entire category, that of art galleries, of which Iacono is the spokesperson.
The intervention, in fact, follows two social performances carried out in recent months and with the same purpose: the first, “There is also art!”, carried out in January when Iacono, breaking into a Decò brand megastore in Forio, placed two paintings by Di Caterino (discounted and sold off) among the food shelves; the second when, in February, the paintings were exhibited in church, causing a certain media sensation as well as the indignation of the Christian community.
Both actions are a clear reference to the current economic and financial situation that grips the globalized world, in particular art and culture, completely sidelined, left in the oblivion of this dark moment that the cosmos is experiencing, due to Covid-19 and the restrictions imposed by the Government. In particular, art galleries are suffering the effects of the crisis and the months of closure imposed by the numerous and now senseless DPCM, which have been following one another since March of last year and which give no respite or hope to culture and especially to the world of art.
Salvatore Iacono
He is not new to this kind of intervention built on the edge of illegality, through extreme performances of social denunciation and, since the first lockdown, he has continued his personal battle against the corrupt system of contemporary art, in defense of the entire sector of Italian art galleries, without letting himself be stopped by government constraints, designing and staging new models of art enjoyment. From the first poster art interventions created with Street Art File Print from May to August 2020, through the various exhibitions/non-exhibitions starring Mimmo Di Caterino (from Lockdown/Social to the most recent Social Distancing trilogy), up to the installation – Oxygene by Michele Penna “Don't take the air you breathe for granted!” – created last December in the six municipalities of the island.
The work that Salvatore Iacono has been carrying out for years with Ischia Street Art Gallery, a “non-gallery”, an open-air gallery, an art centre and a multi-operational place, a promoter of artistic culture and revitalization of the territory, a tourist attraction and a central hub for social aggregation, is a more than significant work, essential for the entire community of the island but also for all those socially engaged artists who find in the gallery a new way to express themselves.
ISCHIA STREET ART GALLERY
Ischia Street Art Gallery it is the first model of an interactive art gallery for social issues in the world, an underground space dedicated to expressions, culture and concepts of urban art, a private centre but open to all that becomes a place of reflection, of provocation without censorship, of dialogue, why not, of open conflict and even an instrument of civic re-education.
An exhibition space that goes beyond the concept of an art gallery also because the visitor is no longer a wandering and unknown shadow that preserves and takes away with him his emotions, but is involved in the first person and from a passive element becomes active having the possibility of "tagging" directly on the surfaces already used by the artists a trace of his impressions, expressing his creativity with the same immediacy of a writing-symbol-message that can be found in school bathrooms, in tunnels and on subway trains, in certain places less exposed to everyone's view such as underpasses, train stations, prison cell walls, even on some monuments or inside historic buildings. In a civil or uncivil way people tend to place a sign, a testimony of their passage or to declare their feelings of a particular moment even on the bark of trees. From this ancestral instinct of communication, after all, writing, graffiti and ultimately street art were born, and so, why not do it in a gallery making it the authorized "bearer" of a creative message?
ISAG intends to present the work of art no longer understood as a mere representation of an aesthetic research or formal expression, nor as an object of market speculation and financial investments, but rather as a vehicle for direct dissemination, a manifesto of indignation, satire, irony, denunciation, an instrument of artistic militancy in social issues.
Art center, unauthorized multi-operational place, not officialized by commercial and political or state labels or brands and therefore not exploitable ISAG was born as a path of ideas and emotions. It promotes exhibitions, events, performances, including a festival dedicated to Graffiti Writing and national and international Street Art that involves enthusiasts, locals, tourists, students and children in an experiential and creative way.
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