P-HOPE at Seminaria 2023

“Have you ever wondered what happened to your balloon?”

“This is my complete work for Seminaria23, a contemporary art festival, in which my piece with a more “street” nature, was a little different from all the rest, and this made the whole initiative even more intriguing. My work is called P-HOPE, it represents, with a little provocation, the various aspects of “hope”. Everyone (even Banksy whom I thank for the balloon loan) has lost a balloon and the only consolation was to give it a wish, a hope, a message to bring to someone as we watched it fly away. Have you ever wondered what happened to your balloon? The work is complete with the presence of Lucia, the very kind lady and friend who placed her home at my disposal, where she spent her life, raised children, grandchildren and children of grandchildren. She had a lot of hope and strength. Thanks Lucy. Thanks to Pierino, an inhabitant of Maranola that I included in the mural (the one with the black hat and not the white one) and thanks to all the organizers of Seminaria23 for accepting a work upside down. A work that you see from the end, from the dripping paint along the stairs, to the beginning, to hope. My hope? is that at the bottom of the stairs, people going up may remember the balloon that once flew away from them. Thanks to my children and my wife, who made the mural with me and who since yesterday founded the #cocchia group”