White holes tour – First part
Elena Zecchin, who recently graduated with honors at NABA in Milan, tells us about the first part of the "White Holes" tour, which visited some of the most polluted cities in Italy
We are overjoyed to welcome back the 22 years young artist from Alessandria, back from her trip where she painted murals with smog-eating paint in Verona, Foligno, Civitavecchia, Taranto, Catania and Milan!
1 – Please Elena, tell us something about how the idea of the “White Holes” tour came about and when you started thinking of it!
“I had just graduated last June and the season suitable for painting outdoor murals had already begun. Since I didn’t have anything planned yet and had read in some newspaper articles about Airlite paint, which is able to clean the air of many pollutants, I posted a story on Instagram sharing the idea of doing an anti-smog mural, during the summer. I never would have thought that in the next few hours many invitations would arrive to host me, coming from different cities in Italy! Not knowing how to choose, I said to myself, “Well, since some of these cities are among the most polluted, then let’s go to all of them!”
2 – Compared to your initial idea, were you able to include all the stages, or did you have to exclude some of them?
“I decided to “break” the tour in two parts, mainly for logistical reasons. The second part of the “White Holes” tour will start at the beginning of summer 2022, and will touch the cities of Brescia, Bergamo, Padua, Turin and Alessandria!”
3 – What criteria did you use to choose the figures to represent in the various cities?
“I actually let myself be guided a lot by the inspiration of the moment. For each of the cities, however, there was a specific problem that I wanted to represent. For example, in Civitavecchia the chimneys, in Catania the garbage and the difficulties of the public transport system, in Milan the waste of food.
The murals are very abstract. Each one represents in its own way a different environmental and social issue.”
4 – Could the “eating-smog” paint with which you painted the murals be used more in public places? Can you tell us more about its composition, cost and availability?
“Absolutely it should be used. The company that makes it, Airlite, is small and makes it to order. This is one of the main reasons it costs about four times as much as regular quartz paint. It’s a mineral-based paint that renders pollutants in the air (fine dust, formaldehyde and other harmful chemicals) harmless inert salts, thanks to sunlight (which activates it). In fact, it purifies the air.
In the first month in which it is laid down, it also absorbs CO2. Unfortunately, this is a “limited” power, but the most important thing is that the paint continues to clean the air of other pollutants for a guaranteed ten years. This is a very good thing, as it improves the air quality of the rooms where it is applied. It is therefore particularly suitable for schools, kindergartens, public buildings and wherever there are people who spend a lot of time inside closed rooms or for example courtyards. To make a comparison, each square meter of paint is equivalent to the action of one square meter of forest. Moreover, this paint is also among the most sustainable in the world.”
5 – On October 1st you participated in the strike in Milan together with Greta and Vanessa! What emotions did you feel? Were you able to exchange a few words?
“Yes, I was with them many hours during the event and we talked a bit! We didn’t get into geopolitical or environmental issues, I preferred to focus more on the “human” exchange, so we made jokes about how they found themselves in Italy, or how annoying the journalists who were assaulting them are! It was very nice to chat with them, absolutely!”
Thank you Elena for being our guest again! We are booking for the story of the second part of the tour “White Holes”! Stay tuned!
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