Jesi, town hall erases part of Blu mural, but reassures: it will be rebuilt

It has raised much controversy in Jesi (and beyond) the intervention on a shed on the facade of which is a well-known mural by Blu, one of the best-known street artists on the international scene, with interventions in several countries on three continents. The work by the artist, who was born in the 1980s in Senigallia, had been created in 2011 on the building owned by the municipality on Via Politi, which at the time had become the headquarters of the Tnt social center: however, in 2012, following heavy snowfall, the roof had collapsed, the municipality had granted another building to the social center, and the shed on Via Politi had been abandoned. A state of abandonment that lasted for seven years, until the current Jesi administration, led by a coalition of civic lists, decided to proceed with renovation work: when the work is completed (the end of the intervention is scheduled for January 20), the building will most likely become the site of the school cafeterias of the Municipality of Jesi.

Controversy arose because, during the renovation work, part of Blu’s mural was erased by covering it. The Municipality, issuing some statements to Corriere Adriatico, made it known that the erasure (which concerns the top part of the work) was necessary because it was located “on a portion of the wall already damaged by the collapse of the roof, which was falling, and with it also the corresponding drawing,” and that any further intervention on the work was blocked “as soon as its importance was realized.” Yet, the municipality should have known that a work of great importance was located on that building: this is the thesis of Samuele Animali, mayoral candidate in the last city elections with the “Jesi in Comune” list. “It is not true that the municipality did not know anything,” he wrote on his Facebook profile. “Aside from the fact that ignoring something like this would be serious, but when the recovery of the Politi building was being contemplated in the City Council, we were the ones who pointed out the presence of Blu’s work (we also used it to comment on some of our interventions in the election campaign). On that occasion the councillor for culture replied that of course they were well aware of the existence of the work and would ’save’ it. If now it is said that they will ’run for cover’ (because no preventive tuela was provided), evidently there was a problem of coordination between different offices or carelessness.”

In any case, the municipality has let it be known that Blue will be contacted so that once the work is completed, the work can be restored to its original state. It is estimated that about 20 percent of the work has been lost, but the municipality reassures that reconstruction will also be made possible thanks to extensive photographic documentation. The mural depicts a blank-eyed man eating spaghetti that descends directly from his brain, transformed, precisely, into a plate of tomato pasta: a work meant to be a denunciation of an Italy incapable of thinking.

In the image above (from a video by the newspaper QDM News), the current state of the work. Below, Blu’s mural as it was originally.

Jesi, town hall erases part of Blu mural, but reassures: it will be rebuilt

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