Pisa, Ozmo's Galileo cancelled. Controversy erupts

In Pisa, in the Porta a Mare area, the well-known street artist Gionata Gesi, aka Ozmo, had created in 2017 a large mural on the facade of a private building at the beginning of Viale D’Annunzio that depicted a profile portrait of Galileo Galilei complete with planets and the instruments needed for astronomical observations.

Five years after the great work that everyone now knew was completed for the Welcome to Pisa festival curated by Gian Guido Maria Grassi, the mural was erased following the construction site started on the building for necessary renovation work. And controversy broke out.

Ozmo told La Nazione that he was warned of the ongoing work that would lead to the total cancellation of the mural when construction work had already begun, and that he was contacted by the curator of Welcome to Pisa to create the same mural again, the same as it was, as soon as work on the building was completed. “Unfortunately, I was notified after the work was done. I don’t know how I will be able to redo the mural that the City Council wants identical. There is also no word on the budget that is being made available,” the artist commented. “For the first mural, the original one, I had received a symbolic reimbursement of expenses. Moreover, now, I should, together with my assistant, rush to Pisa, on the scaffolding to redo it within an unspecified time.” The artist is also puzzled about the complete reproducibility of the mural, because it is not a print or something that can be reproduced indefinitely.

For its part, the City of Pisa responded by saying that it has in no way ordered the mural’s cancellation and that it has had no direct contact with the artist on the matter. “The office of urban quality and restoration of historical and artistic heritage of the Municipality was informed of the ordinary maintenance intervention on the property decided by the owners, taking note of what was written by the technicians in charge, who guaranteed the partial restoration of the painting by the same author and in case ’the possibility of entirely redrawing the mural in a copy faithful to the current one.”

Pisa, Ozmo's Galileo cancelled. Controversy erupts

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