“I Trenta” (i.e. Thirty) by Flavio Favelli reproduces thirty passports from different countries of the world in an iris-tinted sequence. In fact, the mural reinterprets, in a geometrically clear grid, symbols and graphics of the covers of these documents, common and often little-looked-at objects that the artist brings to our attention by inviting us to reflect on their meaning.
This is a site-specific work conceived by Favelli in connection with the exhibition “Rainbow. Colours and Wonders between Myths, Arts and Science” as an expansion from the rooms of the MUDEC to the public space, where it will remain visible well after the end of the temporary exhibition. Connected to the theme of the rainbow first and foremost on a chromatic level, the mural takes up elements and iconographies that are very dear to the artist, who has long worked with symbolic objects from different places and times.
Side by side, the passports suggest an imaginary journey outside the borders of Italy while at the same time re-proposing the themes of individual identity and the power of individual state administrations. While each document is in fact a guarantee of the personal data on it, its very value depends on the authority of the state that issued it and whose symbols we can see on the title page.
“I Trenta” is a Milano Arte Pubblica project curated by Alice Cosmai and Alessandro Oldani, with the technical support of Walter Contipelli – Orticanoodles and the collaboration of BASE
photo: © Beppe Brancato | © Christian Richters | © Fabrizio Stipari
