DISCOVER EMPOLI
Since 2021, Empoli has been working to foster the expressive languages of Street Art, understood as the group of art forms for which any technique is used to create graffiti and murals in public places. It is in this setting that the first murals in the program were created, some signed by nationally renowned street artists, others created on the municipality’s Muri Liberi [Free Walls] by young local artists.
The objective behind the Empoli Beyond the Walls project is to create new artistic directions, to qualify or redevelop urban spaces. At the same time, it is an attempt at combatting forms of vandalism to public or private property, giving young artists the opportunity to express themselves on specifically delineated surfaces whose use has been granted by the Municipality or private citizens.
On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death, in 2021, E-Distribuzione chose to celebrate the Supreme Poet with “Le Cabine del Paradiso [The Electrical Towers of Paradise]”, an art project sponsored by the Ministry of Culture. Nine murals depicting the 9 Heavens of Dante’s Paradise were created on 9 Enel electrical towers distributed throughout Italy. Clearly, at the centre of each work, is the element of ‘light’ suggesting the client and representing the substance itself – the vital energy- of the love that moves all things.
Empoli was chosen to host the work “Secondo Cielo [Second Heaven]” made by the artist Neve (Danilo Pistone) one of the leading neo-muralists in Italy. In this Heaven are the souls who sought earthly glory and fame and Dante also addresses the theme of the death of Christ. Out of a black background, Snow’s signature style, an Archangel emerges illuminated by an evocative enveloping light. The shroud he holds recalls the themes of incorruptibility and the Resurrection.
The work, located on one of the city’s busiest streets, is made with a type of paint that absorbs CO2, thereby helping to reduce pollutants in the air.
This large mural, overlooking the square in front of the Empoli Railway Station, welcomes those arriving in the city by train or bus. There are portraits Rina Chiarini and Remo Scappini, two figures crucial to Empoli’s Resistance movement, chosen to keep interest and curiosity towards the themes of memory and anti-fascism alive.
Husband and wife, both from Empoli, were leading figures in the struggle for liberation: for her contribution to the Resistance Rina was awarded the silver medal for military valour, while Remo paid a high price (12 years in prison) for his anti-fascism; despite this, he led the revolt of the Genoese people against the Nazi-fascists, and as president of the Liguria Liberation Committee, was handed the signed surrender of the German troops commanded by General Meinhof. The work was created by the Sicilian artist Ligama (Salvo Ligama), one of the most important street artists on the national scene.
Around the city and smaller villages are about ten Free Walls that the Municipal Administration of Empoli has made available to anyone who has intentions of expressing themselves in art.
Of the murals already completed there is the four-handed work by artists Daniele Mariti and FORMA on the wall of the pedestrian underpass of Via dei Cappuccini. The pink bike and the dragon on the skateboard represent the theme of sustainable mobility.
In the ward of Fontanella, along the road connecting Empoli with the Valdelsa and Siena, the very young street artist RAS has created the mural entitled “Flusso Urbano [Urban Flow]” reinterpreting the theme of Empoli’s urban development, with historical references to different periods and the Arno river’s decisive presence.
