Street Art for Rights: Street Art for the UN 2030 Agenda

One of the most awaited events of the MArteLive Biennial - Europe's largest multidisciplinary diffuse festival - will be Street Art for Rights, which returns to Rome from 15 to 30 October 2022 to sign the third edition and to mark the last 8 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN agenda:

GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities

GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities

GOAL 12: Responsable consumption and production

GOAL 13: Clmate action

GOAL 14: Life below water

GOAL 15: Life on land

GOAL 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

GOAL 17: Partnership for the goals

Street Arts For Rights wants to tell and spread the culture of sustainability through street art, a public manifestation of an art that is born in the urban landscape and belongs to it.

Street art for Rights was created with the intention of bringing art into the surburbs of Rome, areas with harsh realities, and adopts the 17 Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as the core of its project. The idea is to filter the 17 Goals through the lens of contemporary art by promoting the realisation of 17 wall works by several young street artists with the aim of bringing social, economic and cultural issues to the walls of the capital's suburbs, in areas known for very difficult situations.

The project aims to give artistic value to the action plan for the people, the planet and the prosperity promoted by the UN, bringing the community closer to the various issues and stimulating discussion on the pressing problems on a broader scale.

The project, devised and directed by Giuseppe Casa and curated by Oriana Rizzuto, is organised by the cultural association Taste and Travel in collaboration with MArteSocial and MarteGallery. It envisages a three-year programme of activities aimed at the future creation of an open-air museum, public and free of charge, off the beaten track in the capital.

After the first 9 goals, the three-year project Street Art for Rights closes with the remaining 8 goals.

No poverty (goal 1), Zero hunger (goal 2), Good health and Well-being (goal 3), Quality education (goal 4), Gender equality (goal 5), Clean water and sanitation (goal 6), Affordable and clean energy (goal 7), Decent work and economic growth (goal 8), Industry, innovation and infrastructure (goal 9) were the first goals established by the artists in the two previous editions.

For this last year, the districts that will host the works of goals number 10 to 17 will be Settecamini, Ponte Mammolo and San Paolo.

The artists involved come from different areas of the national and international contemporary urban art scene and have been selected for their civil commitment as well as their artistic mark and impact:

• Attorep (Italy) will illustrate GOAL 10: Reduced inequalities, with his romantic portraits that makes you reflect on increasingly fragile human relationships;
• Davide Toffolo, the illustrator of the Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti with a scratchy gothic-punk style, will produce a work for GOAL 11: Sustainable cities and communities;
• Etnik (Sweden), with his upside-down, geometric illustrations representing the precarious balance of human beings and the relentless speed of the contemporary world, will create a work on GOAL 12: Responsable consumption and production;
• Fabio Petani (Italy), with his stories about nature involving the reflections on climate change, will paint in favour of GOAL 13: Climate action;
• Barbara Oizmud (Italy), an oneiric and cubist photographer and illustrator, with her surreal myths and heroines, but at the same time symbols of the reality of our times will depict GOAL 14: Life below water;
• Natalia Rak (Poland), with her colours and themes related to nature and its legends, will represent GOAL 15: Life on land;

• Neve (Italy), with her pictorial art between classicism and urban art clearly inspired by Caravaggio, will tell GOAL 16: Peace, justice and solid institutions;
• NSN997 (Spain), with their graphic patterns capable of making us reflect on relationships and multiculturalism, will be engaged in converting in an artistic view GOAL 17: Partnerships for goals.

Thanks to their art filled with their own point of view, the artists will re-establish a powerful image of the key-concept of the sustainable development, from which all the considerations of the social debate can arise and from which all the actions to be put in play by institutions, companies, individuals should start.

For this reason, it will not be a simple street art festival, but an artistic and social action, aimed at pursuing the purpose of expanding, through art and opportunities for encounters, the space dedicated to the good practices of the environmental, social sustainability and the sustainable governance, with the desire that these will multiply by creating a chain reaction of positive contagious effects.

The suburbs of Settecamini, which has already hosted several works in previous years, will be the beating heart of the initiative, in collaboration with the Neighbourhood Committee. The other sites of the festival will be the Metro B station Ponte Mammolo and San Paolo in the 'Vito Volterra' school.

Natalia Rak, Attorrep, Neve, Davide Toffolo, Etnik and Fabio Petani will enrich the Settecamini suburb, meanwhile Barbara Oizmud will bring her creativity to the metro B in Ponte Mammolo and NSN997 will illuminate the 'Vito Volterra' school in San Paolo with their patterns on multiculturalism and sharing.

Special paints from the AirLite patent are also used to create the works. These products are able to transform pollutants into salt molecules and initiate the photosynthesis process. The use of these tools has the dual goal of transforming the neighbourhood both aesthetically and environmentally.

At the end of the project, a QR code plaque will be attached to each wall, which will link to the official website and give everyone the chance to discover more visual and informative content about the artists, the Goals and the creative process.

The final inauguration of the murals is scheduled to take place in Settecamini, with a whole day dedicated to the contamination between artistic genres, which has always been a central element in the MArteGAllery project that has organised contemporary dance and music performances in Settecamini.

Once again this year, the making of the event will be documented by a young photographer, the talented and multi-award-winning Martina Biccheri, whose images, together with those of the other two photographers chosen for the next editions, will converge in an exhibition and a catalogue on the festival, named GOAL 0, with the documentation of the entire project.

Street Art for Rights has in fact decided to add Goal 0 as a function of the need to make people reflect and talk about the artistic culture of sustainability. "Goal 0" will be the title of the concluding photo exhibition that will be shown at the MITREOISIDE Gallery in Corviale. This exhibition will feature the three photo-reportages (made by three female photographers who followed the artists' work), the sketches donated by the artists and other contents related to the events, in order to make a final point about the possibility of realising the theme of sustainability also in art and cultural dissemination. The publication of the catalogue is planned at the end of the three-year period.

The project, promoted by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale, is the winner of the Public Notice Contemporaneamente Roma 2020-2021-2022 curated by the Department of Cultural Activities in cooperation with SIAE.

Street Art for RIGHTS is part of the activities developed by MArteSocial, an incubator focused on solving social problems through artistic-cultural projects that can generate a positive impact on the inhabitants of less developed neighbourhoods experiencing hardship and marginalisation.

MArteGallery is a virtual space dedicated to the exhibition of artistic works in every field (photography, painting, sculpture, graphics, etc.), whose main purpose is to give space to emerging young artists, support artists and galleries, and spread the accessibility of culture and art with the possibility of purchasing the works on display. A true 'art label' dedicated to emerging artists and galleries, offering management and communication advice but also support, knowledge and tools to operate in the contemporary art world.

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