When I think about Orticanoodles, it’s impossibile for me not to think of the times when a glimpse intriguing images, seemingly revealing multiple meanings, could be caught on the walls in Milan.
I think of posters and stickers with Pop imagery. I think of how the city seemed to secretly whisper about an urban creative guerilla. I think of the bond between forms, geometries and colours that generously change the appearance of a neglected area, giving it a soul. I think of the tallest mural in Italy (and amongst the highest in Europe). I think about Alita and Wally, who’ve been amongst the first advocates of stencil art in Italy.
Orticanoodles is not about street art, period. It’s about art applied to collectivity, highlighting the aspect of its public fruition. Projects usually happen in shared modality with people who live in the district, with the aim to confer a memory of collective value to it. In these last years Milan is witnessing a rebirth of urban art; and if until a few years ago it was all about regenerating the territory, today it’s all about actions to qualify and give a place identity.
Frequently, the connotations with cultural personalities who’ve left a sign in history, are intrinsically connected to the creation of the artwork itself. Judge Giovanni Falcone, but also partisan poets (Roberto Roversi) and painters (Renato Guttuso). Tributes to scientific researchers (Mario Capecchi, Rita Levi Montalcini, Renato Dulbecco and Salvador Luria) but also to the great Andrea Pazienza, the heroine of Carrara’s resistance Francesca Rolla and the cyclists of Giro d’Italia.
To celebrate Orthopedic Institute Gaetano Pini’s 140 years, the faces of 12 great milanese figures (Alda Merini, Franca Rame, Mariangela Melato, Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella, Enzo Jannacci, Giorgio Gaber, Luchino Visconti, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Emilio Gadda, Marco Ferreri, Gian Maria Volontè, Gianfranco Ferrè and Gio Ponti).
To quantify the number of artistic operations made by Orticanoodles is a rather difficult task but between national and international participations, surely the following are worth citing: the London Cans Festival organised by Banksy and the important Stencil History X exhibition. In Paris with other 14 Italian participants selected to take part at the 4500 square metres temporary museum, Tour-Paris 13. In Rio de Janeiro for the Italian Institute of Culture.
In Italy, the restyling of the historic Fratelli Branca Distillerie with its 55 metre tower, earning the record of the tallest mural in Italy and amongst the highest in Europe.
The duo’s contribution to bring life back to Ortica district – which is obviously where their name takes inspiration from – is also singular. They painted Cavalcavia Buccari – Ponte della Memoria for 70 years of Resistance, and seven protagonists of milanese folk music (Nanni Svampa, Ornella Vanoni, Enzo Jannacci, Giorgio Strehler, Dario Fo, Ivan Della Mea, Giorgio Gaber).
Another reason why Orticanoodles deserves my respect – and yours too – is that they use AIRLITE paints which are absolutely innovative, reducing air pollutants, transforming them into harmless mineral salts and neutralising them.
Besides knowing them personally, finding them extremely capable and admire them for the devotion to their mission, I am truly gobsmacked for how much they’ve achieved. After a (failed) attempt due to bad timing, I speak to Wally.
His gift of the gab and his enthusiasm embraces me and overwhelms me. In literally one second, I imagine myself on an incredibly high scaffold, painting a wall of colossal dimensions.
. . .
WHY
why and how did you end up in your career path?
We moved to Milan in ’96 from Massa Carrara and La Spezia. That’s when we came across the first forms of spontaneous street art. In cities during the 90s – beginning 2000, you could see the first posters with the objective of destabilizing the observer due to the messages contained within the urban context. It was a form of criticizing the creation of false needs and messages in advertising. We were coming from ADV Graphic Design so it was a relevant subject.
We became an active part of this type of expression that we approached almost illegally. We were preparing posters at home in our laboratory and we gradually moved to the outside with some poster campaigns, symbols of a sort of urban creative campaign. That’s when we began to understand what the best types of materials and scaffolds were, also by asking poster campaign employees on the street. We began to professionalize.
In 2008-9 we began to receive the first commissioned works from the new Councils that were interested in making investments for urban regeneration and requalification, to improve run-down areas such as the typical vandalized tunnel for example.
Today it isn’t about a regeneration act, but a qualification act to confer territorial identity and a memory of collective value. The difference lies in the concept: it isn’t about an improving act in comparison to what was before but the will to create an artwork tout court. It’s the same as when a sculpture is installed in a city square.
WHO
how would you describe yourselves in a few words?
The dream is to imagine Orticanoodles as a modus operandi and a way of living public art. How? Through education and a shared project modality. For example, schools participate at the murals, even projects with 160 participants.. everyone is Orticanoodles. Orticanoodles is a working method with an applied technique, it’s an art collective, it’s art applied to collectivity. Usually the artistic concept meets the single artist stereotype.
WHAT
what is your source of inspiration?
A little of everything. We frequently change scenario; right now our analysis concentrates on nature and portraits. We are working on site-specific projects with people living in that peculiar district and its architectures. Inspiration comes from everywhere. Art is a filter you apply on the context you live in, so I’d say there isn’t one in particular.
WHERE
where do you go to when you need a break?
Being on the worksite is very tiring and hard but the spirit’s regeneration comes in that exact moment a new project comes in. The next operation is the synthesis of the one that preceded it, so the moment we rest we are already thinking about the next one; it’s catch-22 situation! We’ve produced more than 4 works in row since August!
WHEN
when and what will your next steps be?
We have a few projects on the go. In collaboration with Orme – Ortica Memoria, between 2018 and 2019 we expect to create 16 projects – 8 per year – for the transformation of Ortica into an open-air museum. A project of district identity and memory, to emphasize its spirit through a non-standardized process. Wall-paintings everywhere, more than in any other district, so as to emerge as the most painted one.
**WILDCARD
which operation of titanic proportions haven’t you undertaken yet?
I like challenging projects that I can always solve with technical solutions. Walls are simpler and bare less challenge because they are more standardized, so no real ambition in that sense is involved. I’d really like a big cruise ship. It’d be an enormous challenge, because it’s exposed to weather conditions and it’d require technical research and particular altitude instruments.