Besides the occasional spray of paint in the humid darkness of Norman Tunnel or the drippy painted phrases on the 34th street wall, Gainesville has been a relatively colorless town.
Until now.
Italian urban muralist 2501 arrived in Gainesville this morning to transform the barren walls of the :08 Seconds building into an experiential piece of art for the entire city to enjoy.
2501, whose given name is Jacopo Ceccerelli, has created visually breathtaking murals all over the world. In Italy, Mongolia, Australia, Poland, Germany, Brazil, Nepal, Tunisia, London, Paris, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles and Miami (to name a few), he hypnotizes passing pedestrians with monochromatic color schemes, cutting lines and optical illusion complexity. His community-oriented attitude and fascination with architecture inspires him to explore both major metropolises and small towns alike.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Jacopo and his partner and filmmaker G. Matta over espresso just moments before he made his first brushstrokes.
Photo: Claire Fuller
You’ve visited some huge cities in America. What drew you to Gainesville?
J: In reality, all our projects, in my way of painting, are always derived by the chance. In reality, small cities in Europe and in the U.S. are really important for muralists. Most of the festivals are made in small cities. We’ve been to a festival in 2013 in Florida, in Sarasota, that’s also a small one. In reality, for us it’s really normal to be invited to a small place.
Is your mindset the same whether you’re in London or you’re in a small town when you approach your art?
J: The way I paint a mural is really connected with the architecture. I was painting figurative before, but now I mostly paint abstract because abstract has allowed me to interact more with the architecture and to play with ideas. We just finished a project that was called, “On the Brink of Disaster,” that was my solo show in Rome and was my first solo show after five years in Italy. So, it was pretty important. Nomadic Experiment [a website showcasing Ceccerelli’s works] is a kind of box where our, like, it’s all videos, but there are some parts that are more about the works, like how we develop an idea. Another part is about being an eyewitness of a whole movement. For example, “Glimpse of America” is about what is happening behind the scenes. The excuse is our trip, but the main focus is…it’s you.
G: So, it doesn’t matter if it’s happening in a big city or small place, because each place, every single city, has got a kind of taste and a potential interaction with communities of people that could be even more than in a big city. You never know.
Do you get your inspiration from the people you’re interacting with around the world?
J: Yeah, maybe I don’t get the direct inspiration for this wall directly from the people, but yeah, the work is about the perception because I feel like muralism is something that’s been developed a lot in the past centuries. It’s nothing new. We already had the big masters of this discipline, but what the new muralist school is bringing, I think, is more an attitude. Something like how, first of all, everyone can do it. It’s really democratic and second, explain that art is not just for the artist that has the idea, the genius that is one every million. This, I think, is an invention of our market. Plus, it’s something that, with the new school of muralism, is showing how fast a city or an architectural environment can change.
So, I think the aim and inspiration is this: it’s the movement. So, of course, yes. All the people, the architecture and the situation that we find in this journey, this specific journey and the journey of our life in general, are making this feeling that unifies all the works. I think it’s more about the experience. For example, she [G] studied history and she studied curating at Goldsmiths in London and we were speaking about how perception is changing everyday more and more. Normal people that don’t know much about muralism are getting more and more involved in it.
Via: Baltimore, U.S.A.
Of the artists in the industry, is there anyone you look up to?
J: I don’t really look at muralists for my art. Of course I admire a lot of Mexican and Italian muralists from the Renaissance, but I don’t think this is my main inspiration.
Is there a city you haven’t been to that you would like to paint in?
J: All of the cities.
G: It’s sort of an experience and a great occasion to interact with a place.
Do you find a space first and then the idea comes or do you have an idea and then you find the wall or spot for it?
J: I think both. In reality, of course they send you photos of the wall, but you don’t know the wall in reality, so you have to be able to switch from having a project and having the right spot to do it to having several ideas or several concepts that can be adapted to different places.
This is a little heritage from my past, the ability to interpret the moment, the space, the architecture. What G always says that I find very interesting is that mural is rather than an object or a physical piece, it is an experience. An experience for the public and for the artist himself. I think this is key point for a new generation of muralists, for sure.
Photo: Claire Fuller
What can the people of Gainesville expect from this project?
J: I think that people of Gainesville can expect an experience more than anything else. What’s going to happen here is an experience. I think one of the most amazing things about this discipline is how the environment changes so quickly and when you change a corner of a street that seems in a way not that big, in reality, it’s something that changes the situation a lot. I think also people can try to interact.
G: It’s not just “Ah, here’s the wall, let’s see the wall,” and you think “Oh, it’s nice.” You are in Gainesville, which is a super young city which is full of students, it could be nice interacting.
2501 is anticipated to finish the mural by Sunday, June 21. Don’t wait until it’s finished to wander by, the creation of urban art is a performance itself, so stop by the site and feast your eyes on art in the making.
The process of painting the :08 Seconds building will be documented and the video shown at this year’s Art Basel International Art Fair in Miami this December. Some of 2501’s art can be viewed on his website and his video projects can be viewed here.
Featured photo courtesy of: DozeCollective
