From september 15 to 17, the first edition of the Urban Art festival organized by A Testa Alta E.T.S. with the artistic curatorship of Street Levels Gallery was held. Palazzuolo strada aperta was a three-day widespread intervention on the shutters: ten house numbers on Via Palazzuolo, eleven artists from the area involved and an exhibition with as many new works created especially for the occasion. 

Prossemica is the thematic framework of the first edition of the festival, a concept intended to reflect on the relationships in the urban ecosystem. Indeed, proxemics is defined as the study of “the possible assumed meanings of the material distances that individuals tend to interpose between themselves and others.” But proxemics is also that “branch of semiotics that deals with various cultures’ use of space and spatial distances.” 

Can a certain physical distance influence the way we communicate with our environment and those who inhabit it? What kind of proximity do cities need? What networks and ties can be activated to cohabit the same place and make it welcoming? Who lives via Palazzuolo and what relationships have they activated with their shutter neighbors?

We submitted these questions to the eleven artists featured in this first edition: Clet, Exit Enter, Droste, James Vega, Kraita317, Luchadora, Mìles, Monograff, Mr. G, Nian, Urto.  Prossemica intends to return the personal vision of each artist on the theme, through the shutters painted in the street and the works inside the gallery.

ALTRO