Eron’s Street Art in Santarcangelo di Romagna

The city of Santarcangelo di Romagna is famous for its strong Romagna identity, for the atmosphere of a large village marked by a perfect rhythm of life, for its architectural beauty and for the international events that enliven it, not to mention the village festivals full of scents and flavours.
 Santarcangelo is also a small pearl of poetry, known thanks to Maestro Tonino Guerra who has left an indelible trace of his art in the installations in the city, in the poems written on the walls of the houses and in the ceramic works located in some of the most iconic and evocative locations of the place.

 

But Santarcangelo also boasts another record: it was the “open-air canvas” of one of the most famous Street Artists in the area - ERON, the first in the world to have been called to fresco the ceiling of a church - and who left testimony of his great art in 5 places in the city.

 

If we arrive in Santarcangelo passing through the provincial road that leads from Rimini to Savignano sul Rubicone, we already find on our left, the work TOWER TO THE PEOPLE, in via Pozzo Lungo.
The work expresses with all its grandeur the strength of delicacy, the power of non-violence, the victory of kindness, of love over hate, the intensity of poetry, the perfection of harmony, people’s desire for freedom and peace. A poetic work, silent and at the same time disruptive, which shows a raised fist composed of delicate three-dimensional roses.
The artist brings to mind the case of Tommie Smith, the black American athlete who at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City made the gesture of a clenched fist raised to the sky, on the podium, intending it as a human rights salute.

 

We can leave the car in the free car park a few metres from the tower and proceed on foot to the entrance of the city. It is precisely on this street, in Via Ruggeri, that we find the Municipal Washhouse, now a Centre for Research and Theatrical Experimentation and at the top, painted on the wall, the work SOUL OF THE WALL.
On one side emerges the face of Raffaele Baldini, a celebration of the poet and writer from Santarcangelo that appears on the left of the wall, on the other there are women doing laundry. The wall exudes images, fragments of memory and history linked to the very place that time restores to us, blurring them in its shades, but still visible as beautiful shrouds.

 

After the washhouse, the obligatory stop on our itinerary takes us to the back of the Supercinema, in Piazza Marconi, where ERON, with the work GIULIANA, celebrates the poetess Giuliana Rocchi, who is socially and politically engaged.
The poetess, of humble origins, had to leave school due to economic difficulties but had nevertheless carried on her propensity for writing, by leaving us beautiful poems in the dialect of Romagna. ERON, with an extraordinary sensitivity, captures the essence of this life and with the usual hyper-realistic game that distinguishes him, punctuates the space with a series of white sheets hung and moved by the wind, which turn into sheets of paper and then into doves. The artist thus synthesises a strong and profound sense of freedom and leads us to a reflection on women and their role in modern society.

 

If we leave the Arch of Piazza Ganganelli behind us, after about 100 metres we arrive at the Palazzo della Poesia, in Via Pascoli. In the two lunettes of the highest window, we find the unmistakable roses that we have already seen at the beginning of our journey.
 The three-dimensional effect makes the flowers come out of the wall, a true poem for the Palazzo della Poesia, through one of the flowers - the Rose - symbol par excellence of love, passion, beauty and sensuality.

 

The last stop on our itinerary is MUSAS, the Historical Archaeological Museum of Santarcangelo created with the aim of preserving and enhancing the archaeological and historical-artistic heritage of the city and the territory.
The artist has left traces of his passage in three works inside the Museum, created with his unmistakable narrative style.
In the corridor of the MUSAS, right in the passage between one room and another, we find hanging on the wall the letter that a partisan sentenced to death had written to his mother.
Perhaps the words framed in the painting would even go unnoticed, but ERON celebrates them by letting out of the suction nozzle placed a few metres from the painting, the “smokes” of the desperation of a mother, with her hands on her face, to contain tears and pain.
And smoke seems to be the constant with which the artist celebrates the traditional works present in the museum. Above a beautiful fireplace appears a father in a consoling attitude for the work DON’T CRY created as part of the exhibition “Unearth. Bring to light.”
Finally, at the end of this itinerary we find the work “GUIDO CAGNACCI IS GONE...”.  Exactly at the point where the MUSAS had hosted one of Guido Cagnacci’s most beautiful works, the Madonna and Child, ERON makes the painting - revisited with his style - appear from the usual suction nozzle at the top of the wall, reminding us that an important work of art, or rather its soul, can still remain forever imprinted on the wall that once hosted it.

For info on MUSAS
Tel. (+39) 0541 624703, (+39) 0541 625212
Via Della Costa, 26, Santarcangelo Di Romagna (RN)