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It will be called Peace
Edited by Lawyer Paola Furini
January 15, 2020
"… and if it's a girl she will be called Futuraaaaa…"
It is impossible for people of my generation to read this verse without humming it to the catchy notes of the very famous song by Lucio Dalla.
The lyrics are from 1980 and tell the story of two young people from Berlin who, despite living on opposite sides of the wall, manage to love each other and conceive a child who, if it's a girl, will be called FUTURA.
Like Lucio, many other artists, through their works, have conveyed messages of love and harmony against all walls.
In 1986 it was Keith Haring who painted on the west side of that same wall a long chain of human figures joined together by hands and feet. The graffiti, meant to be a temporary work, was destroyed but its message of harmony among peoples remains. Who could have imagined that, after the fall of that famous wall and the powerful message that arose from its fall, walls in the world would multiply?
It is true that in Berlin the wall was built to prevent people from leaving and that today walls are mostly built to prevent people from entering, but what difference does it make? They are always restrictions on freedom to which, today as then, artists respond with their works.
At the border between California and Mexico there is a very long wall that makes immigration to the USA more difficult. Ronald Real, an American artist, built an installation by making some seesaws with a seat on one side and one on the other side of the wall and the pivot in the center, with the aim of letting American children play together with Mexican children.
At the border between Israel and Palestine there is a separation wall that also crosses Bethlehem. Banksy created a nativity scene for this Christmas, right there in front. Behind the Holy Family, instead of the stable, the artist reproduced that wall hit by a grenade whose hole recalls the star of Bethlehem. The work is called “The Scar of Bethlehem” and it hits like a punch in the stomach.
Among the many walls and the many artists, what has become of Futura?
Today she is about forty years old and certainly does not live in the "ideal" world dreamed of by her father and mother. Who knows if she belongs to the ranks of the builders of walls or to that of the artists.
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