In the beginning were the author walls, rather contested, not accepted by all, nor understood. The village idiot went around spreading judgments in his own harsh way, with phrases like this: "Mo 'nguacchiano 'nto wall!" Then, gradually, they began to be accepted, liked. Today we can say that the murals of Furore have played and increasingly play a social function having proved to be an extraordinary tool for community growth. These open-air works of art have entered people's consciousness, people's lives, without asking permission and have promoted their identity. The "country that is not there" lacked just that. At least it was unexpressed.
The painters of the painted walls have discovered and enhanced it, thus giving a soul to the places. With their creative imagination, they reconstructed the history of the village, revealed the way of being of its inhabitants, told their legends and cunti, gave shape and image to their myths and rituals as best they could. This great en plein air art gallery with its various expressions has become as much a part of Furoresi life as any other object of daily use. Between paintings and sculptures there are now more than a hundred works. Some are imbued with irony, others with emotion, but the line between reality and imagination remains, however, very blurred.
These are works capable of captivating the viewer to the point of enveloping, involving, and propelling him or her into a world where the distinction between the real and the verisimilar is all but impossible and, in many respects, useless. A panorama with a soaring sculpture in the foreground, houses with frescoed walls, colors fading in a sunset or blending with the blue of the sky and sea: this is Furore, "painted town," which fascinates and enamors.
Giacinto Scelsi
