Chekos | Eyes on the Streets

With over 130 murals in Stornara, it would be a bit daunting to show them all in one blog post so I have been spreading them out a bit. My previous post showed some murals on Via Don Enrico Tazzoli, ‘A Stornara wall’. The first few pieces in this post is just around the corner from those.

below: Five faces looking at you, by Chekos

mural in black and white, with pattern covering, five female faces, painted by chekos

below: A closer look at the pattern of lines that the artist uses.

close up of part of checkos mural, black and white with line texture, woman's face

below: A skull with geometric shapes, by Manomatic

manomatic painted mural of a skull with geometric shapes and patterns of different colours on the forehead

below: Beside the skull, a child looks out the window.

image of child looking out a window, painted on a wall, beside mural by manomatic of a skull

below: Giovanni Castro’s artwork of seedlings and new plant life.

mural, slightly abstract, of new seedlings growing, showing roots and new leaves, a red line runs randomly across part of it

closer look at the seedlings in Giovanni Castro's mural

below: “Never invisible again”

two children walking together, back to viewer, image in a mural, along with text that says never invisible again

below: “Lupin e Jigen” by The Gaetan, a tribute to gay love. Both are characters from a manga series, Lupin III, first written by Monkey Punch (aka Kazuhiko Katō) in the 1960s. Lupin is a thief and Jigen is one of several of his gang members. Throughout the series, Jigen remains Lupin’s loyal and reliable partner to the end.

mural in pinks and blues of two men, one in a yellow hat who is saying i love you

below: Are those words written across his face in place of his eyes?

closer view of faces in The Gaeten's mural of two men

below: There are a number of pop culture references in Toni Espinar’s ‘Mondo Patetico’ that was panted during el Festival COMIXSTREET de Stornara in 2022

large mural with many figures and elements by Toni Espinar, title is Mondo Patetico which translates to pathetic world

part of mondo patetico mural, clown similar to the one on The Simpsons TV program, also a child with the words Stop War on a bandage across its forehead, and a label on the hair saying victim. Krusty the Clown is saying tutto e controllato which means everything is checked

below: Nearby, there are a few more walls that were (or could have been) painted during Comixstreet such as this image – she wears Wonder Woman’s clothes but carried Captain America’s shield. It was also painted by The Gaetan.

two buildings across the street from each other in Stornara Italy, both with murals painted on them

below: A couple of “comic book” type illustrations by Devil Art Design

mural by Devil Art Design, painted for comix street festival, comic book characters, man holding woman who has fainted

below: by Kris Rizek “Donatrix (The great red riding hood)” – she carries a basket of spray paint cans to grandma’s house and no wolf is going to stop her!

This blog post is a sample of the murals that I found while visiting a section in northeast Lecce around three streets – Via Raguso, Via Novara, and Via Agrigento

below: Dimitris Trimintzios aka Taxis painted this image of a woman harvesting what appear to be olives. Lecce is in the province of Apulia where olive groves dominate parts of the landscape; about 40% of Italy’s olive oil is produced in Apulia.

mural by Taxis of a young woman holding a basket full of ripe olives, olive trees in the background

167B Street is a group that promotes art and community – to improve the look of neighbourhoods and to promote interactions between the residents. It is named after the multi-ethnic residential area in Lecce Italy where many of the murals have been painted, Neighbourhood 167 is a collection of apartment buildings that was built in the late 70’s to meet the demands for social housing at the time. It is also the neighbourhood where these photos were taken

below: Wormbook by Artez,

below: “Mamma perdono” by Sabotaje al Montaje – here a fisherman catches plastic caps instead of fish, a comment on water pollution.

below: Two large murals on adjacent buildings, both painted by Chekos.

two murals, both on the ends of an apartment building, both painted by Chekos

below: It’s their world – Children who are friends in real life too, Andrea and Fatou.

mural of two young boys hugging, with a large globe of the Earth, one boy is white and the other is black

below: This mural is a tribute to two football players, Michele Lorusso and Ciro Pezzella,
who played in Lecce in the 1970s and 1980s. Both died in a car accident in December 1983.

below: Two Great Spotted Woodpeckers painted by a pair of Dutch artists, Karski (aka Roy Valk) and Beyond (aka Roelof Schierbeek) These birds are known for creating the perfect home and environment and for defending their territory.

below: Wish by Millo (Millo also has a mural in the nearby town of Monopoli that I included in a previous blot post – Monopoli’s Millo). Here, the couple are tied down and tied to each other by red strings attached to their fingers. Are they wishing for travel (airplanes)? housing? dreams? each other?

below: The Italian words, “L’amore non è amato” translate to Love is not Loved, a quote that is attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi. The artist, Igor Palminteri, says on his instagram page, “I dedicate this wall to all residents of the 167 neighbourhood in Lecce.
Let’s rise up, overcome all prejudice and open new paths to self-determination.”

bottom of Igor Palminteri mural showing just the girl's feet in blue and white sandals, also the tops of three cars that are parked beside the building

And last, there is a lowrise building in the neighbourhood that has been fully decorated by a team of artists – Chekos (aka Francesco Ferreri), Gabriele Quarta, Ania Kitlas, and Simon De Filippi. The murals were created from ideas provided by a Lecce City project called “Libri per la pelle – interventi artistici di arte urbana” (generally translates to Books for the Skin, interventions in urban art). Ferreri and Kitlas are the artists that founded 167B Street.