Those 22 naked bodies dancing on the wall celebrating beauty beyond disease

If you happen to wander by Milan in the Porta Genova area from here until Julyyour gaze will be captured by A work of art full wall which will roll out on those of the Italian State Railways Group and which will depict 21 naked women. It’s a man.

Who are these women and this man? And why only one man? Because this work bears the title of IMPERFECT (I’M PERFECT) and it is a photographic project created by a woman who has experienced breast cancer. Sponsored by the Municipality of Milan, it represents the largest work of street art created with the paste-up technique on a public surfaceby the hand of the artist Yuri Catania.

The protagonists were all operated by breast cancer. He too yes, because of breast cancer also affects men (they are diagnosed every year 1.7 breast cancers per 100,000 men and 150 cases per 100,000 women, AIRTUM 2021 data). The artistic initiative has a specific purpose: to promote the prevention, awareness and fundraising of Follow the Pinkthe solidarity campaign of IEO-MONZINO Foundation, in its fourth edition, which has the mission of informing everyone about the importance of prevention and early diagnosis, and of supporting the Research of the European Institute of Oncology on tumors affecting women. In particular, the support will be aimed at Women’s Cancer Center of the IEOthe first center in Italy reserved for the world of female cancer in its entirety: from the management of the risk of getting sick, to early diagnosis, to therapies, up to reintegration into everyday life with the recovery of the individual life plan.

IMPERFECT: scars as signs of life

The bodies of these 22 people were “cut”, modified, operated on to continue living. Life goes on, but the scar remains. How to embellish it? By associating it with Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art that uses gold to repair broken pottery. The idea came to Julia Ruggerimother and osteopath, 42 years old, a husband and three children, operated on for breast cancer by Doctor Peter Caldarella, Deputy Director of the IEO Surgical Breast Division in April 2021.

The visual artist was then contacted Yuri Catania, who portrayed 22 half-naked bodies who have undergone an oncological experience, e will overpaint the remaining marks with gold paint, thus restoring all the magnificence and feminine beauty. The sense? The art of embracing the damage, of not being ashamed of the wounds, and of being able to welcome a new identity. The beauty of being damaged, broken, imperfect: IMPERFECT, so, or I’M PERFECT, with the gold IM letters. Why it is in being that the power of life is enclosed.

IMPERFECT: bodies that dance and fly, finally

The mural work consists of photographic representation of a body wave of 22 patients, 21 women and 1 man, which were portrayed with great sensitivity through dedicated photographic sessions: the patients were able to symbolically “free themselves” of their wounded body (outside and inside) to become part, through the photography of Catania, of a single and great “dancing” work.

The bodies portrayed as neo-classical sculptures stage a choreography of the rebirth of a body that takes flight again, the freedom to be. Here the photographer’s creative choice becomes fundamental: the very dynamic portraits of perspective and body movements deliberately hide the faces, with the simple aid of lights, so as not to seek direct visual contact with the identity of the individual patient. Instead, they represent the accomplished choice of a universal aesthetic message of redemption through the «group» of the 22 IMPERFECT. This choice was inspired by statue of Venus de Milo, an absolute symbol of neoclassical beauty, albeit without limbs. The photographic project sees its peak in a real choral performance between the artist and the patients in creating an ephemeral but “monumental” work through street art.

IMPERFECT: a “living” work in the heart of Milan

To see the work “come to life”, pass by Via Ventimiglia, in the Porta Genova area, in Milan, on 1 and 2 April: you will find Catania and the same subjects portrayed and their families intent on working on the wall, like a single “crew” of over 100 people. The artist completes the mural he will paint the cracks using a brush with gold paint (to simulate Kintsugi). closed on all the bodies represented. The end result will be an immense network of golden cracks that will connect these bodily “vessels” along the entire 120-metre stretch of this large street canvas.

Never before has Milan been given the opportunity to create ainstallation of paste-ups – the form of urban art that uses paper affixed to the wall – of these dimensions: 120 meters of wall for over 360 square meters of work.

The wall was not chosen at random: it is the perimeter of the final stretch of the platforms of the Porta Genova Station – which extends from the parking lot at the beginning of Via Ventimiglia, up to the pedestrian passage that connects Via Ventimiglia and Via Privata Bobbio with the other side of the railway in Via Savona .

It turned out to be the most suitable choice as well as being a place of heavy traffic, it is a pedestrian path and the walls divided into sections are 22 like the subjects photographed for the project. Finally, the project provides the partial redevelopment of the internal facades of the walls because they have been repainted in pink, the symbolic color of the countryside Follow the Pinkalso contributing to the removal of writings and graffiti far from a true artistic expression.

IMPERFECT: the fundraising campaign

IEO-MONZINO Foundation has activated a campaign of “adoption” of portions of the wall of IMPERFECT aimed at all the realities that have shown an interest in becoming part of this special project: therefore thanks to the generous contribution of Camera Showroom Milano, Tessabit Luxury Boutique, Serates, Riccardo Grassi Showroom, Lookiero, Tiziana Fausti.
Special thanks to the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group for the concession of the spaces, and thanks also to Officina Milano, to G. Ecorecycling SA. and at Swedlinghaus.
It will also be possible buy the street art work of Via Ventimiglia in portions of the wall mounted on frames and certified by the artist as unique pieces or in NFT, starting April 1st. The sale will be made through a pre-sale directly on the artist’s website www.yuricatania.art and will last until June 30, 2023.

The content of each painting consists of fragments of the work that the artist himself will detach from the wall to catalog them in a grid that will allow the buyer to trace, through a photograph of the entire work, which portion of the wall corresponds to his fragment . A unique idea of ​​its kind that will make it possible to make a paste-up work «eternal» and collectible which today is considered ephemeral by its very nature, being paper glued to the wall with wheat starch. The money collected will be donated to Women’s Cancer Center of the IEO to enable the advancement of research on female cancers.

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