Super Walls 2021
The pass of three for the Crémerie! Third trip to Padova for our dairymen accompanied this time by ArtkorBagdad and Lélé as reinforcements. Objective: the SuperWalls2021 festival. Like a final won 3-0, our huge façade obtains the record for the biggest fresco in Italy.
Our love with Italy and the province of Venetto dates back to 2017 when we first visited. We had been invited by Carlo Silvestrin and Dominique Stella after having received his artist Alessio B in Rennes for an exhibition at the Fatcap Bar, followed by a few "urban" interventions.
This introduction, you already know it following our first article on our previous transalpine epics. The connection was obviously well established between Rennes and Padova, we arrived in conquered territory.
That's why after making the largest mural in the province of Venetto, in the first edition of SuperWalls, we return this year for a new record.
Departure on May 26, 2021 from Beauvais, in a most dubious airport… Our team tries one last slice of French pizza at 6 a.m., just for the joke. Followed by a slightly frightening Easyjet flight, given the quality of the "flying" device, a few hours later we finally arrive at our destination: Venice.
"This water castle is bigger than in the photo !"
The discovery of our support is as imagined: impressive, more impressive than on Google Map.
The imposing size of the water tower offered us many puzzles upstream to calculate the exact surface to be painted. We would like to thank Jean Braun for his skilful calculations that allowed us to precisely order the astronomical quantity of paint required. No less than 600 liters of acrylic await us on the spot to cover a little less than 4000m².
We are ahead for once. The festival starts on June 5, but given the amount of work to be done, this extra week is clearly not too much.
First step: cleaning the wall. This building was erected in the 1970s, in other words more than 50 years of dust have accumulated on the concrete. The only possible option: sweep and scrape…for 3 days.
Our shoulders quickly warmed up with this first exercise. The presence of two lifting platforms allows us to compose two teams. Two men on each basket, and two on the ground to belay and serve as visual support for each duo. The walkie-talkies borrowed from the Festival du Before are also essential to ensure good communication between the teams. Indeed, at 43m high, it is not easy to hear his colleagues on the ground.
Cleaning, followed by undercoating, ensures optimal cleanliness of the surface to be painted. Durability is a priority for us, and those early days of hard work may have saved us several decades.
As on almost every project in Italy, we had a plan, a precise model to follow, which ended up changing once we arrived on site.
Impossible to use bombs to cover this huge area. We therefore opt for the "airless" solution, two paint guns, technological gems. Especially a phenomenal saving of time to add as many colors, in a clear way or all in gradients.
"The colors are finally coming to the wall for all to enjoy."
After days of preparing the wall, and tracing shapes, we are finally in colors. The paint guns work great, both are loaded on a pod and running at full throttle.
Although we arrived ahead of this festival, the timing was tight for our team. Access to the "top" of this tower, the upper part, is apparently restricted. The diffusion of telephone network antennas would be harmful to our brains. We will therefore only have the right to two three-day sessions, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A session for cleaning, undercoating, filling. A second session for gradients, effects and breaks.
Everything is in place on time, the end of the operation is decided in unison.
We all agree, we need a multitude of dedications.
What could be more "graffiti" than a wall covered in tags?
The best calligrapher of the team gets ready, armed with two loaded paint guns, Gloaros chains 97 tags on the entire fresco.
La Crémerie and its two reinforcements took up the challenge of painting a wall of extraordinary dimensions, to date the record for the largest fresco produced in Italy. Through this project, the Rennes collective enters the very closed circle of "painters of mega-structures".
Painting a multi-faceted and rounded support, visible over 360° and 45 meters high, is in itself a technical challenge.
And why be satisfied only with this immense edifice? Lélé, ArtkorBagdad and the Crémerie are hungry for bombs. The abandoned amusement park of Padova did not pour out this desire to empty the can. The water tower is surrounded by pristine walls... As soon as seen, they were undercoated with gray and kept glancing for the duration of the festival.
End of the water tower, the mission is over, we still have a little time to empty all these unused bombs. 100m² as a bonus! This long wall welcomes a clever mix of our know-how and desires of the moment. It's time to have fun! While Lélé places a gorilla on the first visible wall of the place, Baghdad cuts the large opposite wall with a machete to distribute several spaces. Everyone sees it as a well-deserved reward for this hard work. The patchwork works.
End of the trip, after these 21 days in Italy, La Crémerie would like to thank our two faithful acolytes Lélé and ArtkorBagdad for their precious help #EKIP, but also Carlo Silvestrin and his team for organizing this fabulous trip.
Grazie a tutti!
Official SuperWalls Festival 2021 Video
Photo credits: acegasapsamga, gianca_balestra, mara-mich, marendindolciinstrada, mariste, marti.gerbaldo, michelezecchini, ninastreetartpd, artkorbagdad, silvia_titia, streetspirit73. Thanks to them !
Other frescoes made live:
