Pisa, criticism of new culture alderman who calls Keith Haring's Tuttomondo modest and banal

Harsh criticism of the new councilor for culture of the City of Pisa, Andrea Buscemi, a member of the Northern League in the newly installed junta led by Mayor Michele Conti (center-right independent). The object of the reprimands is a passage taken from Buscemi’s book (who is an actor by trade), published in 2018, entitled Rivoglio Pisa - istruzioni d’uso per un sindaco (Eclettica Edizioni, 2018), in which the newly appointed alderman expresses his thoughts on Tuttomondo, the celebrated mural by Keith Haring (Reading, 1958 - New York, 1990). The book reads: “In Pisa all kinds of ways are given prominence (postcards and posters are printed, T-shirts and souvenirs of all kinds, even cups, plates and glasses) to publicize that very modest and very banal mural of metropolitan inspiration that is Tuttomondo by New Yorker Keith Haring, which some perverse (and deeply, grotesquely radical chic) mind authorized some thirty years ago to be made on a wall of the convent of Sant’Antonio.” The passage then continues with the hope that Pisa will enhance other works in the city.

Many social media users have spoken negatively against Buscemi, as well as members of the Una città in comune list, who have written a lengthy article against Buscemi on their website: “Pisans,” the article reads, “do not forget the days when Haring was in town, working with the boys of the parish of Sant’Antonio, back in the days when Don Luciano wanted to host him. Perhaps even the younger ones have seen the two videos documenting the whole process of making and involving the neighborhood (L’Arte in diretta and Tuttomondo, both by Andrea Soldani) or had a chance to visit the fine exhibition of Haring’s silkscreens that was held at the Palazzo Blu in 2012, at the conclusion of the restoration of the Pisan work, promoted by the Haring Foundation and financed by the Caparol Center - a firm that provided Haring with paint free of charge in 1989 - as well as by the University of Pisa, the Region of Tuscany and the Municipality of Pisa, under the direction of the Superintendency. Interesting then to point out that part of the proceeds from the sales of those gadgets against which Buscemi launches his rants goes to the Haring Foundation for AIDS research.”

Indeed, Tuttomondo is a work of capital importance: created in 1989, it is theonly work conceived by Keith Haring to remain permanent, as well as thelast of his career (shortly thereafter the artist, suffering from AIDS, would pass away at the age of only thirty-two), and it sends out a universal message: for all these reasons it is now a beloved work by citizens, and a must-see destination for tourists. Buscemi, for his part, entrusts his own defense to a Facebook post, lashing out at those who accused him of wanting to erase Tuttomondo (accusations that are indeed specious since Buscemi has never made such proposals), and reiterating the fact that in the book he wondered why Pisa does not also merchandise works such as Buonamico Buffalmacco’s Triumph of Death in the Camposanto or "a Crucifix by Giunta Pisano kept in San Matteo."

You can read an in-depth discussion of ours on Tuttomondo at this link.

Pisa, criticism of new culture alderman who calls Keith Haring's Tuttomondo modest and banal

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