Trieste, 16 Urban Artists in the field to revitalize the former Banco di
Napoli, now transformed into a gym Peeta, Ravo, Joys, Ozmo, Rancy and many others change the face of the historic Ventennio building inaugurated by Mussolini in the capital of Friuli Trieste, November 2022 - Sixteen international artists, two thousand square meters of painted works and a prestigious building of Italian rationalism from the twenty-year fascist period in the heart of Trieste.
The former headquarters of the Banco di Napoli changes its look and becomes, today, the scene of an exceptional Urban Art session. Peeta, Ravo, Joys, Ozmo, Rancy, Oger, Amina, Sorte, Stuer, Corvino, Fosk, Stefano and Mattia Bonora, Samuele Frosio, Ron Miller and Andrea639, the most famous artists who have made the history of Writing and Street Art, nationally and internationally, are also the authors of monumental works of Urban Art inside the building, engaged in the enterprise of giving new life (and colors) to the historic building of the Thirties during a month-long construction site, which transformed the twenty-year construction into the temple of Italian Urban Art.
The former banking institution, founded between 1935 and 1938, was inaugurated by Benito Mussolini on the occasion of his visit to Trieste. Having been abandoned for years as a credit facility, it was recently taken over by RSG Group, the German multinational fitness company, and transformed into an innovative gym of the “John Reed” brand, the second in Italy after the one in Venice-Mestre. The facility, which will be officially inaugurated on 25 November 2022 and which will be one of the largest fitness complexes in Italy, thus proposes a new idea of ​​a gym, capable of combining training, music and art. The works of the artists, scattered on every wall of the gym, make the environment unique, in the name of visual art and in a continuous search for balance between old and new, between rationalism and Urban Art, between chromatic austerity and a real explosion of color. Guiding them, Luca Mayr, curator and artistic director of Urban Colors, and Ron Miller, art director of the project.
Lines, movement, combinations of letters and shapes, colors dialogue with the architecture of the building, an expression of the Italian rationalism of the twenty years, which made the history of the city of Trieste until falling into disuse in recent years. Now it comes back to life with a massive redevelopment project of the building, in the name of art, design and in the sign of the conservation of valuable elements. Here then the fixtures, the wooden floors, the spiral staircase, the most attractive architectural attraction of the building, combine with the monumental works of the most established artists on the national and international Urban Art scene.
For example, Peeta's artworks play with the simple lines of the rationalist
architecture of the building, creating optical illusions based on perspective and three-dimensionality. The marble slabs of the counters acquire depth with the optical art of Sorte and beyond the wooden floors the impossible and geometric labyrinths of Joys come to life. Then there is the symbolism of Ozmo, who reinterprets the Renaissance iconography of the sacred mountain with the addition of esoteric languages, from dragons to the lunar representations of the tarot. But also figures that seem to have come out of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch that coexist with the dynamism of contemporary Marvel superheroes, thus creating a mysterious and fascinating world in its unrealism.
Each artist has left their mark and their message. And alongside the extraordinary works of the artists, the environment and the training experience are made special by the presence of many elements that have made the history of the bank, such as the vault with the safes and security deposit boxes of the time transformed into a weight room or the stone counters repurposed as a reception, bistro and console area. And again, the cash registers, the bunker and a series of stalactite tables from the Postojna Caves, which were donated by Slovenia to Benito Mussolini.
“Urban Colors, thanks to its experience in the field, understood John Reed’s wishes and proposed in an environment with strong imperial and rationalist tones a contemporary art operation that is opposed but in dialogue with the context” - explains Luca Mayr, curator and artistic director of Urban Colors. “The artists’ works communicate to the observer not only a strong break from the austerity of the structure, but they also propose an engaging key of language in the various rooms, offering the visitor an unconventional experience”.
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