ACTIVITY
Walls against oblivion
16 flags for peace
- REMEMCHILD -
Collettivo FX and the Hip Hop Educational Center students create flags of imaginary nations and borders.
December 2023: Meeting with the artist Simone Ferrarini of the Collettivo FX for the planning of the project.
January 15-26, 2024: Workshop by the students of the Hip Hop Educational Center, with artist Simone Ferrarini and educators Carlotta Coccatani and Gianluca Poggi, always supported by the Fossoli Foundation.
January 28, 2024: public event #Walls against oblivion – 16 flags for peace, in the Courtyard of the Stele at the Monument Museum, on the occasion of the initiatives organized for the Holocaust Memorial Day 2024.
Date to be confirmed (April 2024): peace march open to all, from the Monument Museum to the Fossoli Camp, with the 16 flags created during the workshop #Walls against oblivion.
Simone Ferrarini was born in Reggio Emilia, where he currently lives and works. In 2001, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. In 1992, he worked as an illustrator for the Resto del Carlino. Since 2004, he has been a painter, exhibiting in both public and private spaces. In 2010, he founded the Collettivo FX, initiating official and spontaneous work in public spaces using muralism and installations as tools. From 2020, he became a part of Urbaner, a project of the Emilia Romagna Region in collaboration with the Institute of Cultural Heritage, focusing on developing art and public interventions for Public Administrations and Institutions.
Collettivo FX was born in 2010 in the deep province of Reggio Emilia. In love with the land, they work on all its surfaces, without setting limits except those of preserving all those stories too important to be silenced. These are street stories on the street, of communities for the communities, narrated in a never banal way; fragments of beauty that rightfully fall within that section of Art History called Street Art. Over the years, they have created numerous individual works and traveling projects, engaging in social involvement both in Italy and around the world.
Vicepresident Effatà Ets: David Borali.
Coordinator: Alessandra Fini.
Educators: Carlotta Coccatani and Gianluca Poggi.
Centro Educativo Hip Hop born in January 2001 in Carpi, it addresses boys and girls attending Primary and Lower Secondary Schools in Carpi, as identified by the school and local socio-health services. It collaborates with families dealing with social, relational, school-related, and/or family difficulties, as well as situations of social marginalization, the risk of developmental distress, and school dropout.
the #Wallsagainstoblivion workshop promotes the creation of artistic interventions against oblivion in public spaces to convey the memory of victims of all wars and the values of tolerance and peace. In collaboration with artist Simone Ferrarini of the Collettivo FX and the students from the Hip Hop Educational Center, the Fossoli Foundation has produced 16 peace flags representing imaginary nations and borders. The number 16 is connected to the 16 Stele in the Courtyard of Monument Museum, which hosted the flags at the end of the public event on Sunday, January 28, 2024.
The workshop’s idea emerged from the synergy between the artist and the educators of the Educational Center, aiming to create artistic outlets with a socio-cultural impact on the community by tapping into the freshness of youthful ideas.
During the preliminary phase, the planning of the artworks and the creation of preparatory sketches took place, involving discussions with the young participants on the symbolism of flags, colors, and a sense of belonging. The flags are entirely original, a product of the creative inspiration of the young participants, guided in their reflections by the artist and educators. Some drew inspiration from real existing flags, such as those of their countries of origin (the young participants come from at least a dozen different countries), incorporating elements and colors. Others created entirely new compositions from scratch. For them, creating new flags meant finding a different way to come together, overcoming social conflicts, and acquiring new tools to navigate this complex present.
The January 28th event, open to all, was a true public space workshop where the preparatory sketches were literally transferred onto the 2.50m x 1.50m fabric surfaces of the flags using colored enamels. Throughout the initiative, organizers explained the significance of the activity, encouraging reflections among the attendees. The local audience witnessed the entire creative process (from 12:00 to 5:00 PM), taking photos/videos with the flags and sharing them on social networks, thus promoting shared memory and its connection to public space.
During the project’s restitution event, scheduled for April 2024 (as part of the initiatives for April 25 – Liberation of Italy Anniversary), a peace march with the 16 flags will be organized from the Courtyard of the Monument Museum to the Fossoli Camp, strengthen the inseparable bond between these two memorial sites.
