Street Art in Florence -Tana liberi tutti!

The writing on the wall refers to the game of "hide and seek", played by children around the world. The way we play it in Italy is this: a player closes his eyes turned towards the wall - we call this "tana" meaning "lair" - and counts up to a predetermined number, while the companions hide. The seeker then looks for the other players and and when he/she finds one, the seeker runs back to the "lair" and yells "lair for ..." and the name of the one discovered, which is eliminated from the game. But if anyone in hiding manages to touch the lair without being seen by the seeker, they are free. If the last player manages to touch the lair without being seen, they shout "tana libera tutti!" ("lair free all"). This way the seeker has lost and will have to count and search again in the next game turn. Otherwise the first one discovered will have to count and seek. 

In this particular graffiti, the artist depicts a naked girl with a tattooed body, in the act of counting leaning against the "lair". We find the way the shadows are represented on the wall  very elegant. Her slim body reminds us of Valentina by Guido Crepax, a famous comics artist. Her head merges with the figure of a bird (a big crow?), which is perched on her shoulders. It is not clear what the author, who signs him/herself MìLES (soldier in Latin), wanted to communicate. Following our personal interpretation, the drawing could suggest: Let's break free, body and soul? Let’s get out of our hideouts, in the sunlight, without fear, life is a beautiful game. But the big crow is not that reassuring. An ominous threat? Florence, Parterre Gardens, via Mafalda di Savoia.

Here below a detail of the woman's body and then another work signed by Mìles, very different. An intertwining whose subject changes with the distance of the observer. Tags, bundle of snakes, a bird with many heads, many birds tied together, snakes with bird heads, a wasp with bird heads, but it's not clear all the way through. Like a drawing by Maurits Cornelis Escher, the great Dutch graphic designer and engraver, famous for his “interconnected geometries”. This work, very successful from a graphic point of view and which expresses an immediate sense of movement, as if this bundle of "animals" were unfolding, can give the observer different sensations, including a strong repugnance. Warning! With the first work he shares black and white and the refined play of shadows. This is in via Vasco de Gama, Florence. Finally, another work by Mìles in viale Giovane Italia, with the same shadows and the same crows, but, otherwise, no comment.