Formerly known as Enziteto, San Pio is a social housing project built during the 1950s and located in the suburban area of Bari. Originally imagined as the “ideal city”, San Pio turned out to be a non-place: the neighborhood suffers from criminality, social marginality and the indifference of the institutions.
The title we gave to the project, Enziteto Real Estate, is of course self-ironic. Street art festivals are frequently presented as means of urban reactivation for marginalized neighborhoods. We wanted to stress this commonplace, by imagining a suddenly nicer and more colorful San Pio, cooler, less threatening and finally acceptable in the eyes of the “good” citizens. In other words, we imagined that San Pio suddenly turned into a trendy, gentrified neighborhood – a real estate – thanks to street art’s alleged magic powers.
We invited five Italian artists to paint four huge and colorful murals, then several smaller spots with the participation of the residents. By organizing a cool, “hype” event for the first time in the history of the neighborhood, we wanted to attract the city (from the council to the citizens)’s attention there in order to expose their usual indifference.
Production: Pigment Workroom
Artists: Alberonero, Alfano, Ciredz, Geometric Bang, Tellas
Formerly known as Enziteto, San Pio is a social housing project built during the 1950s and located in the suburban area of Bari. Originally imagined as the “ideal city”, San Pio turned out to be a non-place: the neighborhood suffers from criminality, social marginality and the indifference of the institutions.
The title we gave to the project, Enziteto Real Estate, is of course self-ironic. Street art festivals are frequently presented as means of urban reactivation for marginalized neighborhoods. We wanted to stress this commonplace, by imagining a suddenly nicer and more colorful San Pio, cooler, less threatening and finally acceptable in the eyes of the “good” citizens. In other words, we imagined that San Pio suddenly turned into a trendy, gentrified neighborhood – a real estate – thanks to street art’s alleged magic powers.
We invited five Italian artists to paint four huge and colorful murals, then several smaller spots with the participation of the residents. By organizing a cool, “hype” event for the first time in the history of the neighborhood, we wanted to attract the city (from the council to the citizens)’s attention there in order to expose their usual indifference.
Photos by Mario Nardulli and Antonio Pellegrino
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