Saturday, April 26, 2008

Pop Mafia

This photograph shows graffiti on the wall of the cathedral in Palermo, Sicily, from the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. An officer seems to have a somewhat ambivalent attitude about this crime about a criminal, and about having to stand there having his picture taken with it. The face in the four pop-art portraits is that of Matteo Messina Denaro, a fugitive Mafia boss. Note the dollar signs at the bottom of the painting. Corriere is a national newspaper in Italy, but it is also a northern newspaper and perhaps this lends the photograph an additional edge of comedy and mockery for its Italian readers--a common attitude in Italy when looking South.

(photo: Ansa, from Corriere della Sera, 26 April 2008)

followup story in Ansa

1 comment:

Sarah said...

The stencil, especially the stenciled face, is now a very common form of graffito in Italy, at least from what I've seen in Rome. I wonder if the format now has some meaning of its own? Or if its just trendy or efficient?