Giovanni Bosco's MuralsGiovanni Bosco (1948 – 2009)

Giovanni Bosco was a shepherd who lived a difficult life and died relatively young. He had been diagnosed with mental challenges and was interned in a psychiatric hospital for some time, which led to his subsequent social isolation.

Beginning in 2003 Bosco began decorating the streets of his home town – as well as those in neighboring areas – with colorful and instantly recognizable shapes, created in paint and markers: hearts with big eyes, big circles with city names, numbers, and songs. He also created works with similar imagery on sheets of paper, enhanced with waste and recycled materials.

In 2010 the Associazione Outsider Art Giovanni Bosco was created in order to conserve the fragile murals and promote his artwork, and in 2014 they also launched the Museo Temporaneo di Giovanni Bosco (The Temporary Museum) to showcase his works. In 2011 some of the murals were restored and are still in good condition, but for the most part they are slowly disintegrating. A significant bibliography of his work exists, and it has been shone in several exhibitions in Italy and France.

The remaining murals are visible from the street on the façades of several houses in the upper part of the village of Castellammare del Golfo.

~Emanuela Iovino

www.costruttoridibabele.net

21 Corso Bernardo Mattarella
Castellammare del Golfo, Sicilia, 91014 it
Latitude/Longitude: 38.026477 / 12.8806953

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