h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
v o l u m e 1 3 / n . 2 4 - J u n e 2 0 2 0
I S S N 1 8 2 8 - 5 9 6 1
DISEGNARECON S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
M i ch e l e Va l e n t i n o
G r a d u a t e d i n A r c h i t e c t u r e a t
I U AV, h e o b t a i n e d h i s P h D i n
“ A r c h i t e c t u r e a n d P l a n n i n g ” a t
t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f A r c h i t e c t u -
r e o f t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f S a s s a r i .
S i n c e 2 0 0 8 h e i s a c o n t r a c t
p r o f e s s o r o f D r a w i n g a n d R e -
p r e s e n t a t i o n a t t h e s a m e D e -
p a r t m e n t , h e w a s v i s i t i n g r e -
s e a r c h i n 2 0 1 2 a t U n i v e r s i t y o f
E d i n b u r g h .
Shaping identities through Street Art.
Iconography of social claims in Orgosolo’s Murales.
Nowadays, street art is one of the most common
public art manifestations in bigger cities. Howe-
ver, there are case studies that show how this
form of visual communication has a long history
and can strengthen the capacity of the self-asser-
tion also of small communities, far from the well-
known urban phenomena of the large cities.
This article discusses one of this case studies:
the murals in Orgosolo (Sardinia, Italy), analysing
the iconographic production according to which
their creation would be linked to different forms
of claims, starting from the rebellion of the lo-
cal population against decisions of the national
government concerning the municipal territory
until today, passing through the manifestation
of dissent towards the resurgence of neo-fascist
phenomena in the mid-seventies of the last cen-
tury. Furthermore, this article analyses the links
between the need for self-representation and
self-affirmation of the citizens and the use of vi-
Keywords:
street art; murales; visual communication; Orgo-
solo; Sardinia
E n r i c o C i c a l ò
E n g i n e e r, A s s o c i a t e P r o f e s s o r
o f G r a p h i c S c i e n c e s a t t h e D e -
p a r t m e n t o f A r c h i t e c t u r e , D e -
s i g n a n d U r b a n P l a n n i n g o f t h e
U n i v e r s i t y o f S a s s a r i .
sual languages in public space, connecting politi-
cal events with artistic manifestations.
This research is based on the diachronic analysis
of the development of these murals, focusing on
the evolution of their subjects and visual langua-
ges, and highlighting their role in the building of
the public opinion, on the collective imagery, and
on the perception of the local identity. Throu-
gh this analysis, the article presents how it has
created one of the most iconic expressions of
auto-representation of the Sardinian identity, re-
vealing that these representations, known as an
expression of the Sardinian tradition, are not au-
tochthonous but a classic example of “invented
tradition”, arising from external inputs.
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DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
1. INTRODUCTION
As ancient as the primordial signs left by primi-
tive men in their caves and, at the same time, as
contemporary as in Street Art, graffiti reveals an
archaic dimension of our present.
The writer and traveller Bruce Chatwin took pic-
tures of the rock paintings in Rio de las Pinturas
in Patagonia. Hands that emerge from the stone,
obtained by blowing pigment on the hand, to make
a mark, a sign of recognition and identity. Indeed,
non-verbal communication can be considered as
the manifestation of identity, and it became more
significant especially if it is a submitted or repres-
sed identity; as the case of murals, but also ur-
ban graffiti, that acquire a peculiar meaning in the
context in which they are made (Serra, 2007).
The need to be visible and to affirm opinions and
interests are the roots of the social revolution.
They can be considered an engine for the artistic
movement’s birth, which develops intending to
denounce the inequities and grows as a manife-
station of the self-determination of a community.
For instance, the muralist movement in Mexico
cannot be conceived without the revolution. The
wall artists, in this dimension, give visual form to
an emerging historical self-awareness of a people
(Anreus et al., 2012). The three major exponents
of this movement - Diego Rivera, Josè Clemente
Orozco and Alfaro David Siqueiros - trusted in a
collective art that could produce benefits for so-
ciety as a whole. Their works are placed in very
visible and popular public places.
The murals, as collective art, had a communicative
and didactic function. It is a social art that wanted
to participate in the development of a society and
its culture, in close relation with its historical roots.
In the same way, in Orgosolo, similarly to the Me-
xican experience, the realisation of murals beco-
mes an opportunity to visually manifest dissent
and to establish a local identity. Indeed, the expe-
rience of Murals in Orgosolo is closely linked to
a conception of ‘socially engaged art’ and can be
considered a form of ‘social achievement’. The en-
gagement of this artistic expressions refers to the
concept expressed in the Jean-Paul Sartre lecture
held at the Club Maintenant in Paris on October
29, 1945, and published in the following year in the
essay “Existentialism Is a Humanism” where he
stated that there is no reality but in action. “Man is
nothing else, but what he plans to be, he exists only
to the measure in which puts himself into action,
he is, therefore, nothing else but the sum of his ac-
tions, nothing else but what his life is” (1999, p. 36).
With these words, Sartre wishes to report the ac-
tion as the only means capable of changing society.
Against this background should be placed that
form of art that developed after the Second World
War that Renato De Fusco defined as “politically
committed art”, as “a model of an art of political-
social content, or that belonged to international
communism, to the anti-fascist struggle, to the
various popular movements, pacifists, anti-colo-
nialists, etc., with works, however, stylistically lin-
ked to the experiences of the avant-garde” (1989,
Fig. 1 - Pinuccio Sciola, Untitled, 1985, San Sperate.
Retrieved May 19, 2020, from https://www.continentecreativo.eu/paese/san-sperate/
p. 242), and that would encourage many cultural
and artistic movements to the Communist Party.
One of the best-known expressions of this type
of art is undoubtedly that of the Mexican school
born during the revolution of 1910. The works of
the painters Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco
and David Alfaro Siqueiros, the major exponents
of Mexican Muralism, represent an explicit refe-
rence in figurative languages and the practice of
murals as a suitable medium to be understood by
the people. The artistic languages that best inter-
pret the need to involve and communicate with the
popular classes are precisely those figurative, ca-
pable of creating images connected to reality and
easily understandable, such as those of Socialist
Realism to which the Pictorial Neorealism refers,
which sees in Renato Guttuso one of its most si-
gnificant artists. In this context, we should read
the Orgosolo mural, which is a demonstration of
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DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
how murals can mobilise large parts of the popu-
lation around relevant issues of society, as well as
to promote a political and cultural debate on is-
sues that are often little known or hidden.
2. VISUAL CULTURE AND PUBLIC SPACE
To make a space effectively public, it must respect
the collective right of groups to make themselves
visible to the public (Goheen 1998). In this way, the
public space contributes to the functioning of de-
mocratic systems by promoting the visibility of the
actions and political struggles of the citizens who
gather and organise themselves in it.
The public space becomes a privileged place of
direct and non-mediated contact between indivi-
duals, which can enhance the process of the for-
mation of public opinion, the confrontation, the
knowledge, the awareness of the reality. Howe-
ver, the formation of public opinion needs spaces
and media through which the phenomena of the
world become visible (Cicalò 2009). It is the space
of the relationship between individuals in which
action is performed, and the public visibility of the
discourse on which the organisation of democratic
society is based is achieved (Arendt 2001).
The concept of public space is closely linked to the
idea of democracy (Zukin 1995), which is based
on the declaration and affirmation of individual
rights. Public space is, in this sense, a space of
negotiation, an institutionalised space of conflict
(Deutsche 1996). Accessibility to public space and
visibility in public space becomes indicative of in-
dividual freedoms and the possibility of disputes
and protests.
Despite urban policies oriented towards order and
control, the public spaces of the city continue to be
the theatre for the manifestation of the unpredic-
table and uncontrollable action of individuals or-
ganised and brought together in search of visibility
and attention. The idea of the conquest of visibility
in public space has been deepened by geographi-
cal studies from which two different visions of the
urban landscape emerge: the urban landscape
as a stage (Cosgrove 1984, 1985) and the urban
landscape as a theatre (Sennet 2006, Cosgrove
1997). In the first approach, the city constitutes the
scene in which the dominant classes represent
themselves through the possession of space and
the control of social relations that take place in it.
Therefore, the political role of space is expressed
not only in demonstrations and protests that take
place in it but also in the expression of power and
domination that is exhibited in it.
However, the city is also the theatre in which every
citizen becomes an actor. According to this idea,
the public sphere is represented through the me-
taphor of the theatrum mundi (Sennett 2006) in
which the play of everyday life takes place and in
which what is visible immediately becomes public.
Fig. 2 - Serramanna Artistic Group, Untitled, 1977, Villamar.
Retrieved May 19, 2020, from < https://www.sabrinabarbante.com/sardegna-in-inverno-come-e-dove-andare-e-che-cosa-non-perdere/img_4298/>
If in the idealisation of the agora the public space
was constructed through action and discourse, in
the theatrum mundi it is realised in seeing and being
seen: interaction between people is characterised
by primacy of visual over discourse (Cupers 2005).
3. MURALES AS MEDIA FOR SELF-REPRESENTATION
In recent years, street art has increasingly beco-
me mainstream. Through it, the artist intends to
trigger public debate and to make controversial
issues public for all to see - even in restrictive
political environments and even for the illiterate.
This form of increasing public awareness on
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h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
social and political issues has a history that is roo-
ted in the Mexican Muralist Movement of the early
twentieth century, which was conceived as a form
of art aimed at people. The foremost interpreters
of this artistic current, Diego Rivera, Clemente
Orozco and David Siqueiros, turn to the largely illi-
terate rural population, taking inspiration from in-
digenous and popular art and reflecting elements
of Mexican culture that after centuries of colonial
domination, on the walls regain a leading role in
history (Charlot 1963). After spreading throughout
Latin America, with the Great Depression after
1929, the Movement’s approach spread to the
United States (Marling 1982). It was in the 1960s
that left-wing student movements arrived in Euro-
pe and spread throughout the world as a form of
art of protest for the self-representation of local
communities and weaker minority groups.
The murals have maintained their connotation of
public art capable of self-representing communi-
ties, allowing them to express identities and opi-
nions. They’re easily realised and visible as places
on the streets where the daily life of the people
takes place, makes wall paintings one of the most
effective media to speak to the local communities
and about the local communities. The possibility
to realise them in an anonymous, uncontrolled and
clandestine ways makes murals a free space of self-
representation in which it is possible to say through
images and words what in no other space can be said
and seen with the same effectiveness and power.
4. THE SOCIAL PHENOMENON OF MURALS IN
SARDINIA
In Sardinia, the term Muralism refers to a multi-
tude of experiences and actors ranging from the
sixties and seventies of the last century to the
present day (Cozzolino 2014, 2017). The first most
significant experiences are found in San Spera-
te –in the province of Cagliari–, in Orgosolo –in
the historical Barbagia region– and Villamar –in
Marmilla. Although they can be associated with
the same phenomenon, spread across the whole
region, the different territorial facts belong to dif-
ferent modalities and conceptions of this practice.
The experience in San Sperate is closely linked to
the figure of the artist Pinuccio Sciola (1942-2016),
who was among the first to use this technique in
Sardinia and is considered one of the pioneers of
Muralism in the island (Concu 2012; Olita & Pes
2007). In 1968 –a year of great political and cul-
tural turmoil– Sciola –returned from his studies
at the Internationale Sommerakademie für Bil-
dende Kunst in Salzburg and from a series of trips
to Spain and France– in conjunction with the reli-
gious feast of Corpus Domini, began painting with
lime the ancient walls of ladiri (adobe bricks) in
the old town. The whitewashed walls will become
later the basis for the first murals. This operation,
which can itself be considered an artistic perfor-
mance, kicked off and transformed into reality the
initial idea - and which persists until now - of a
Paese Museo [Town Museum] (Porcu 2012). This
experience allowed Sciola to participate in the 37th
International Art Exhibition of the 1976 Biennale di
Venezia, directed by Vittorio Gregotti (1927-2020),
hosted in the Italian section entitled Ambiente come
sociale curated by Enrico Crispolti (1933- 2018).
The subjects portrayed in the murals of San Spe-
rate mainly rely on daily life or social and envi-
ronmental reasons differing from those Orgosolo,
that show scenes primarily political or ideologi-
cal relating to social struggles. In the following
decades, artists such as Angelo Pilloni –with his
works linked to local history and traditions– and
Raffaele Muscas –who with essential and ance-
stral geometries investigating the shapes of the
human body– continued this experience. They cre-
ate other murals and helping to feed the artistic
repertoire of the Paese Museo. The experience, a
difference from others on the island, outlining an
expansive vision and a different concept of the cul-
tural commitment of art and the artist, who while
not including a part in the linguistic specific of the
author, connected an equal dialogue relationship
and cooperation with citizenship.
In Villamar - unlike the San Sperate experience
and in a more similar way to that of Orgosolo - the
murals show mostly political and ideological sce-
nes related to Sardinian events. The murals in this
town of Marmilla developed during the second half
of the seventies of the last century. In 1976, the en-
tertainers of the initiative were local painters, such
as Antioco Cotza and Antonio Sanna, and two Chile-
an artists and political exiles, Alan Joffrè and Uriel
Parvex. The latter, members of the Chilean Murali-
sm of the Brigadas Ramona Parra (Longoni, 1999)
during the socialist government of Unidad Popular
(1970-73) by Salvador Allende, were forced by the
coup (1973) of General Augusto Pinochet to take
refuge in Sardinia. This group of artists gave birth
to a period, through the realisation of the murals,
Fig. 3 - Andrea Casciu, Crocus, 2016, San Gavino Monreale.
Retrieved May 19, 2020, from
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I S S N 1 8 2 8 - 5 9 6 1
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h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
of more widespread social and cultural awake-
ning. The subjects portrayed in Joffrè, Parvex and
Cotza’s murals –characterised using bright and
intense colours– are usually of social denuncia-
tion and represent particular local and world-
historical moments. While those made by Sanna
often portray landscapes, habits and customs that
have now disappeared from the town.
Today, this phenomenon –albeit with different
purposes– continues in two quite distinct direc-
tions. On the one hand, it is inserting itself into the
artistic vein of Street Art, with some local artists
such as La Fille Bertha, Andrea Casciu, Manu In-
visible and many others, that have more an autho-
rial character. On the other, with Trompe-l’œil-
like representations on many walls of different
towns depicting pastoral and past life scenes,
which are perceived especially by tourists as sce-
nes of local “authenticity” (Zukin, 2013). It should
remember, however, that only in the nineties did
the first publications (Mannironi, 1994; Piredda,
1994; Rubanu & Fistrale, 1998) which returned a
renewed interest in this form of public art. To the
point of marking a trend also in the intention of
the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna cultural
policies, which led to the cataloguing and invento-
ry of this art form within the Sistema Informativo
Regionale del Patrimonio Culturale, edited by the
art historian Silvia Ledda. At the same time, other
more enlightening and informative initiatives are
developing, they aim to publicise the centres con-
cerned for tourism promotion. For example, the
Urban Center in Cagliari has developed in 2020
the project Continente Creativo, which aims to en-
hance the artistic expressions of Sardinia linked
to the Muralism and creativity of contemporary
Sardinian artists.
5. MURALES IN ORGOSOLO
The Orgosolo case study assumes a connotation
entirely own in the Sardinian context, it consti-
tutes an iconographic transfiguration process of
social claims, with an apparent reference to the
Mexican Muralism of the pictorial movement born
in Mexico after the 1910 revolution.
Fig. 4, 5 - Dioniso, First murals created by the group, 1969, Orgosolo.
(on the left) The original mural. Retrieved May 19, 2020, from , (on the right) The murals today. Retrieved May 09,
2020, from https://medium.com/italia/la-storia-non-violenta-di-pratobello-74d3749c33d6
The first mural made in Orgosolo dates to 1969.
The initiative was born under the pressure of the
anarchist theatre group Dionisio from Milan and
its promoter Giancarlo Celli. Driven by the need
to experiment through a ‘direct relationship’ of
their ideas with different cultural backgrounds
populations, they decided to test their theatre
concept in other national contexts. The choice fell
on Sardinia, which at the time represented the Ita-
lian region with the highest emigration rate and
where popular movements already existed, like
the occupation of military firing ranges in Prato-
bello areas. They moved to Sardinia in early July
1969, before arriving in Orgosolo, they stopped
with their performances first in Santa Lucia and
then in Mamoiada.
The creation of this murals was part of those
as mentioned earlier ‘direct relationship’ with
the population which involved various activities
such as: poetry sessions at homes; the assembly
theatre; the most strictly political meetings and
assemblies; the Dioniso-Test –a political game
to question the concept of ideology; and finally,
the Dioniso-Scuola –which provided for mural
painting with popular participation. The aim of
the latter activity made it possible to exploit the
uniqueness of the action to highlight a dissec-
tion of the problems that afflicted the population
(Balbus, 1980).
The activity undertaken by this mural painting
(Figures 4 and 5), which can define as a ‘militant
graphics’ practice based on local political events
of those years, gave birth to the Circolo Giovanile
di Orgosolo association which theorised the re-
volutionary union between pastors, workers and
students. The mural shows an allegorical perso-
nification of Italy. She subjugated by the United
States (Uncle Sam’s hat replaces the Turreted
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DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
Crown) and forgets about Sardinia (represented
by a question mark). Furthermore, murals show
Sardinia occupied by military settlements (rifle
against citizens) and exploited by the industrialists
from north Italy (the scale that hangs on the side
of a man with the car against the shepherd with
his sheep). Another element detected is the disap-
pearance of some features (Figure 2) present in
the original mural, which shows little attention in
the restoration and maintenance of the works.
In this first experience, we can highlight how this
practice refers to the concepts of “strategy” and
“tactics” expressed by Michel De Certeau (1980) in
his book L’Invention du Quotidien - Volume 1, Arts
de Faire. The term “strategy” refers to the mani-
pulation of power relationships - between state
and local population choices - within a space of its
own that becomes the basis for managing external
threats –in this case, the walls of the city centre.
While, with “tactics” we refer to a deliberate ac-
tion – here through the political mural– to express
dissent and manifest one’s positions.
In the following years, right on the association’s
premises, thanks to the collaboration of the mem-
bers and the participation of Francesco Del Casino
–a local middle school drawing teacher– saw the
consolidation of this practice on the walls of the
whole town. In the beginning, the murals had as
subject the events related to the local struggles
supported by the Circolo Giovanile. Still, very quic-
kly, the themes developed and report the ideolo-
gical positions of the inhabitants concerning local,
national or world themes.
Most of the murals in the town are after 1975. Just
in that year was the thirtieth anniversary of the
Liberazione d’Italia from the Nazi-fascist occupa-
tion and the teacher Francesco Del Casino deci-
ded to create more than ten murals on the walls
of the town’s buildings (Figures 6 and 7) with the
help of his students.
The intent was not only to commemorate the in-
cident but above all, to involve the students to
make them participate and aware of the brutality
of the war, breaking the boundary that divides the
school from society. In those years, in fact, “the
school wanted to use new communication techni-
ques aimed and based on the community and the
Fig. 6 - Francesco Del
Casino, Untitled, 1975,
Orgosolo.
Retrieved May 09, 2020,
from
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I S S N 1 8 2 8 - 5 9 6 1
DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
Su Lizu (the lily) symbol of Orgosolo, that repre-
sents the will of the town’s popular to take sides
against any form of war violence.
Currently, in the town, there are more than two
hundred and fifty murals. They are dedicated to
various political and social themes ranging from
the Liberation of Italy to the local traditions and
the defence of the environment, passing through
the celebration of some historical political figures
such as Karl Marx, Salvador Allende –President of
the Chilean Republic– and Antonio Gramsci.
6. MURALES AND ORGOSOLO IDENTITY
For many years in Orgosolo, the act of portraying lo-
cal and world affairs through the practice of murals
Fig. 7 - Francesco Del Casino, Untitled, 1975, Orgosolo.
Retrieved May 09, 2020, from
involvement of even the weakest social groups”
(Serra, 2007, p. 29).
The presence of Del Casino until 1985, the date
of his return to Tuscany, left several testimonies
on the walls of the town. On several occasions, he
returned to Orgosolo to retake this practice and to
commemorate some events or to dedicate some
murals to characters with a strong political and ci-
vil commitment. These include the one dedicated
to Mahatma Gandhi of 1997 (Figure 8) or the one in
memory of Pinuccio Sciola of 2016 (Figure 9).
Linguistic references of his works –even if the mu-
rals works should be considered more as collec-
tive than authorial works– are manifold. Ranging
from Pablo Picasso’s Synthetic Cubism to Antonio
Ligabue’s False-Primitivism, even if the link with
the Nuova Secessione Artistica Italiana - Fronte
Nuovo delle Arti is powerful (Fagioli, 2005). Using
the definition of Antonio Gramsci (2014), Del Ca-
sino could define as an “organic intellectual” who
emerges from the local situation and remains
connected with it.
Following the artist’s work, in 1978 the contri-
bution of the local painter Pasquale Buesca was
added. In the following years Vincenzo Floris and
Diego Asproni from Bitti, who then continued their
work in the town of origin, joined the operation.
In 1994, the political denunciation reappeared
on Orgosolo walls, with a mural showing the de-
struction of Sarajevo and the conflicts that were
devastating the former Yugoslavia. However, in
1996, a representative episode marked the citi-
zens’ relationship with this artistic practice. The
group of muralists Le Api painted a mural entitled
Sweet dreams on mattresses of Pratobello, which
depicted some shepherds cooking a pig on a spit,
one of whom was talking on a cell phone. The fol-
lowing day, following a discussion between the
artists and some local shepherds, it was decided
that it was inappropriate to portray a shepherd
holding a cell phone, the next day the phone was
cancelled and the face repainted (Satta, 2003).
Irony associated among the myth of Pratobello
was not appreciated and shortly after the murals
were cancelled, breaking the now consolidated
link between the community and this practice.
Last in terms of appearance, as well as the lar-
gest in the town, was the mural by the artist
Manu Invisible, entitled Vuoto [Void] (Figure 10).
In 2019, on the day of the fiftieth anniversary of
the Pratobello revolt, after two days of work, the
new mural was presented. The painting recalls
several recent political events and seems to refer
to the tradition of Pablo Picasso and Guernica. At
the top, the presence of smugglers and the boy
Alan Kurdi, found dead on a beach in Turkey, re-
fer to the tragedy of migrants in the Mediterrane-
an. The toponym ‘Yemen’ on the map of Sardinia
refers to the Domusnovas bomb factory, while
the other dots indicate the NATO bases on the
island. Finally, in the centre, an arm with a bro-
ken sword, the symbol of war conflicts, stoked by
25.8v o l u m e 1 3 / n . 2 4 - J u n e 2 0 2 0
I S S N 1 8 2 8 - 5 9 6 1
DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
has constituted a process of cultural identification.
Manuel Castells –although critical of the recogni-
tion processes of the local communities’ territo-
rial identities– argues that people resist to indivi-
dualisation process and social atomisation only if
united in community organisations that generate
a belonging feeling and a “cultural identity”. Ho-
wever, for this to happen, a social mobilisation
process is needed in which people can discover
common interests through engagement in an ur-
ban movement. Its very existence produces mea-
ning for participants and community in general, as
well as a collective memory of the place (Castells,
2014). An active process in Orgosolo community
until the nineties of the last century. Murals, to-
day, constitute for the community a document akin
to a “Postmemory” (Hirsch, 2014). Relationship
between observers of facts and subsequent gene-
rations or distant contemporary witnesses lead to
a memory of things that happened in the past and
are known only through the stories and evocative
images on the walls. Pasquale Buesca himself,
in an interview with Bill Rolston (2014), says that
young people do not have the same spirit as when
the murals were born, they are less interested in
politics and, today, Orgosolo is like a great mu-
seum. A ‘musealization’ process of urban spatial
practice, born as an expression of dissent preci-
sely through the transformation of the artefacts
into objects of conservation and enhancement for
tourism purposes. The growing political interest
in the cataloguing of works and artefacts (Vanali,
2018) also testifies to this transformation.
The latest experiences, as well as that of Manu
Invisible, although maintaining the evocative and
ethical code towards dissent towards some po-
litical events, represent more an authorial than
collaborative artistic practice, generating a loss
of the feeling of belonging to “a cultural identity”
community. An “artification” (Shapiro, Heinich,
2012) that manifests itself through a change pro-
cess, both practical and symbolic, and of attribu-
tion of meaning that leads to a radical transforma-
tion of the sense of the murals.
The murals over the years have allowed several
times to change the identity of Orgosolo. First of
7. CONCLUSIONS
Therefore, this research shows that the case stu-
dy of Orgosolo’s murals is a classic example of in-
vented tradition. “The traditions that appear to us,
or claim to be ancient, often have a rather recent
origin. Moreover, sometimes they are entirely in-
vented” (Hosbawm, Ranger 2002). The invented
traditions are a symbolic and ideological nature
practice that is implicitly proposed as a form of
continuity with the past. A tradition that was born
with the 1968 protests and with relative new ge-
nerations revolt’s communication of those years,
which saw the pre-eminence of iconic language
over textual language (Fatta, 2019).
all, it allowed re-evaluating the bandits’ negative
town identity, illustrated in Franco Cagnetta’s es-
say Inchiesta su Orgosolo (1954) and the 1961 film
Banditi a Orgosolo [Bandits in Orgosolo] by Vittorio
De Seta, modelling his identity through the social
claims of the murals. Over the past twenty years,
the Orgosolo town, with ‘musealization’ process of
the murals, and identifying with the image of pa-
storal Sardinia (Satta, 2001), has turned into a tou-
rist centre. This vision about town-museum is also
projected externally through official institutional
channels, like official Sardinia tourism portal. At
the same time, International newspapers, like The
Guardian, celebrates the myth of the mural and
invites tourists to visit the town.
Fig. 8 - Francesco Del Casino, Gandhi, 1997, Orgosolo.
Retrieved May 09, 2020, from
25.9v o l u m e 1 3 / n . 2 4 - J u n e 2 0 2 0
I S S N 1 8 2 8 - 5 9 6 1
DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
Fig. 9 - Francesco Del Casino, A Pinuccio Sciola, 2016, Orgosolo. Retrieved
May 09, 2020, from
The murals of the small towns of Sardinia have
taken on a folkloric and touristic connotation over
time to become an expression of a Sardinian iden-
tity that sees in the collective imagination the local
populations resistant to change, in constant conflict
with the authorities and suspicious of influences and
contamination with the outside world. This research
shows that these murals are instead an expression
of the ability of local populations to absorb external
inputs productively and constructively. Their styli-
stic and graphic characteristics are recalling im-
portant international artistic movements, their use
as an instrument of denunciation, protest and self-
affirmation consistent with the history of political
and ideological movements that transcends narrow
regional boundaries, places the experience of Orgo-
solo murals within a broader cultural context. The
fact that it has become one of Sardinia’s most iconic
and symbolic artistic manifestations demonstrates
the strength of this media of communication. Which,
coming from outside, has found in need for auto-af-
firmation and identification of the Sardinian people
a fertile ground in which it can take root and evolve
to the present day, keeping the tradition alive and
making irrelevant it is having been invented.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article is the result of joint research under-
taken by the two authors. Michele Valentino has
written the 4, 5 and 6 paragraphs, Enrico Cicalò
the 2 and 3 paragraphs, both authors the Introduc-
tion and Conclusions.
Fig. 10 - Manu Invisible, Vuoto, 2019, Orgosolo.
Retrieved May 09, 2020, from < http://www.manuinvisible.com/it/muri/lettering/>
25.10v o l u m e 1 3 / n . 2 4 - J u n e 2 0 2 0
I S S N 1 8 2 8 - 5 9 6 1
DISEGNARECON VA L E N T I N O - C I C A L Ò
h t t p : / / d i s e g n a r e c o n . u n i v a q . i t
S h a p i n g i d e n t i t i e s t h r o u g h S t r e e t A r t . I c o n o g r a p h y o f s o c i a l c l a i m s i n O r g o s o l o ’s M u r a l e s .
S T R E E T A RT. D R AW I N G O N T H E WA L L S
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WEBOGRAPHY
Sardegna Turismo – Orgosolo
The Guardian, Street art Sardinia:
the myth and magic of Orgosolo’s
murals,