The work of Nemo’s isn’t only funny, it also invites us to reflect about certain issues. With “No Triv” as the mural was titled, Nemo’s addresses the problem of oil drilling in Irpinia, Italy an area of high seismic risk. Only in 1980 one of the largest earthquakes struck the city, killing 3,000 people and leaving almost 300.000 homeless and according to some studies, the drilling will only increase the risk for new and maybe stronger earthquakes.
NemO’s explain his mural as follows:
“I drew the inspiration for this piece from the problems caused by over drilling in the Italian region of Irpinia located in the center of Italy known for its seismic propensity. Drilling might cause strong earthquakes acerbating the problems.
I imagined the mind of a man to resemble the land pierced by the straws, as they are pointed like the drills for oil. The straws are sucking the soul of this poor man much as the drills do to the landscape”.
Carefully selected NemO’S used the Italian newspaper “Il Sole 24 Ore” which is the Italian equivalent to the Financial Times as the skin of the man and the pages of several phone books for the eyes. The phone books were selected from the towns with plans to drill.
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
It never even crossed my mind that fracking occurs in other places besides the US (duhhh). That would make me very nervous in Italy because of the volcanoes…