From 29 to 31 August, the urban regeneration festival returns with murals, music and collective imagination, street food and art workshops for children. At the start is a calligraphy workshop against the use of keyboards, a contest to choose the image of the next wall and workshops to use Lego bricks as moulds. There is also the “Alice in Wonderwalla” collective, 800 stencils to transform the pavement of the Via D’Acquisto park. The murales season continues with the Spanish artists PichiAvo. Mauro Berti, spokesperson for the Bocaverta Collective: ‘The street is a place of encounters, Wonderwallà festival proves it’.
Vallà di Riese Pio X is preparing to turn into an open-air stage for the 2025 edition of Wonderwallà, the festival that combines urban art, participatory creativity, music and workshops for all ages. The event, eagerly awaited by artists and families, will be held from 29 to 31 August (but will continue with the collective mural until 7 September) and will have imagination as its leitmotif, with a special homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. After the success of the 2024 edition – which saw the participation of thousands of people, the creation of the collective work “The Little Pixel” (dedicated to the Little Prince) and dozens of workshops, concerts, tours and performances – the festival will return with a new edition under the banner of the encounter between art, community and urban creativity.
It starts on Friday 29 August with Letters in Shape, a lettering workshop for children aged 6 and up led by Riccardo Ali, followed by Reverend Paul’s funky-soul DJ set. Expressive techniques range from drawing to illustration, from painting to calligraphy. The aim is to teach children the art of lettering (the one used by writers) and how to draw a calligram, so that they can produce personal and artistic works in an era in which writing is reduced to mobile phone emoticons, modern pictograms that are making calligraphy art forgotten.
Saturday 30 August will be the day of the Wallatour, a tour among the murals accompanied by the sound of the Bloko Intestinhao collective who will alternate their performances throughout the afternoon along the route of the murals. This will be followed by the Murales Contest with artists Enk04, Tomoz and Mozoner, sponsored by Astrofat. The three artists, who are part of a collective from Rimini, will compete in interpreting a theme by proposing their creations on panels that will be installed in the Vallà square, where the festival will be held. The work most appreciated by the public will then also be painted on a wall. Also on Saturday there will also be the workshop Nothing is Casual, again with Riccardo Ali, dedicated to children aged 10 and over. The evening will be enlivened by the music of Hang the DJ, Diplomatico and Il Collettivo Ninco Nanco.
On Sunday 31 August, space will be given to creativity with two free workshops for children and young people: Tetrastamp, conducted by G. Lori Art, and Legografia, an original creative printing workshop with Lego bricks, conducted by Andrea Belfiore. The former teaches the principle of intaglio printing, done on alternative materials such as tetrapak. Then the historical Lego bricks will become the protagonists of a different way of producing art: the aim is to introduce xylographic printing, in relief, using Lego bricks as a matrix. The day will end with music by Soundcek DJ, Lellegher DJ and live performances by Jay Zonta & the Papaya Groove.
For the entire duration of the festival, everyone will also be able to participate in the creation of the collective work that this year is inspired by the book ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll and will be the first ‘horizontal’ collective work, created on a 15-metre by 15-metre concrete surface in the public park in Via Salvo D’Acquisto in Vallà. The work, inspired by the drawings of the first edition of the book, created by John Tenniel, will be realised with the contribution of young local artists and the participation of the entire citizenry, who will have the opportunity to try their hand at stencil and concrete painting techniques, every day from Friday 29 August until 7 September, between 5pm and 7.30pm. The numbers of the work are impressive: 36 squares measuring 2.25×2.25 metres; more than 800 stencils, 12 works (illustrations) created with the help of young local artists, covering a total area of 225 square metres. Hundreds of people are expected; the collective works of the Wonderwallà festival are always well attended and record numbers every year. It should also be noted that actor Paolo Bertoncello will be doing a theatrical reading of some chapters of Alice in Wonderland, every evening from 7 p.m. onwards.
On the sidelines of the festival, also of note is the participation of the Casetta Riese Youth Group, which will propose Il Barattino, exchanges and bartering with a view to promoting the circular economy.
A festival that brings together generations and languages, bringing colour, music and participation to the heart of the community. An event that comes after a season full of events. Among the new murals created this season is “Dove vagano le bestie selvagge” (Where wild beasts roam) by internationally renowned Spanish artist Dulk. Before him was the work of Roman artist Alice Pasquini, aka Alicè. Again, the Veneto village welcomed PichiAvo, street artists from Valencia (Spain) appreciated and known all over the world for their unmistakable style in which graffiti meets classical art, who will be working in the last days of August.
Soon, their works will also be included online in the interactive virtual tour available at www.thewalla.it/vt. It is a tool designed to let people discover – even from afar – the 24 works that have been redesigning the face of the country since 2021. A way to explore, in just a few clicks, over a thousand square metres of walls transformed by international artists into large canvases, with the possibility of virtually walking among the painted walls, discovering their author, history and creative intervention. An invitation to visit physically, but also an opportunity for schools, art lovers, travellers and the curious from all over the world to visit the village without moving from their PCs.
“The Wallà is much more than a festival: it is a path of urban regeneration that through street art, music and creative workshops is breathing new life into the borgo of riesino,” comments Bocaverta collective spokesman Mauro Berti. “The walls that were once bare today tell stories, shared imaginaries and dreams, transforming the village into a stage open to the world. Street art here is not only aesthetic beauty, but a language capable of involving the community, attracting visitors and stimulating reflections on the present. Each edition adds a piece to this collective mosaic and 2025, with “Alice in Wonderwalla”, will bring a further invitation to imagine together new ways of living and experiencing places.”
FURTHER DETAILS – The history of The Wallà
The Wallà is a participatory urban regeneration project that started in May 2021 on the initiative of the social promotion association ‘Collettivo BocaVerta’, in collaboration with the Municipality of Riese Pio X and under the patronage of the Veneto Region and the Province of Treviso. The name combines in a play on words the English word wall and the town where the initiative takes place, Vallà (a hamlet of Riese Pio X, in the province of Treviso). Through the language of street-art, the aim is to improve areas of urban decay and create cultural and economic opportunities for the territory, enhancing the buildings that are the subject of the artists’ interventions. The Wallà aims to transform the walls of public and private buildings into canvases for a permanent open-air museum. To date, a total of 23 works have been realised: 18 on private walls (houses, sheds) and 5 on public surfaces (primary school, basketball and volleyball court) and the initiative is constantly expanding. Each work averages over 60 square metres, and it is estimated that more than 1,000 square metres of walls have been redeveloped to date. Among others, internationally renowned artists such as Alicè, Ericailcane, Kraser, Zed1, Zentequerente, Tony Gallo, Vera Bugatti, Alessandra Carloni, Bastardilla, Agostino Iacurci, StenLex, Tellas, Franco Fasoli, Pixel Pancho, Joys and Orion have participated in the project. 2024 marked a turning point for The Wallà thanks to the success of the Wonderwallà Festival, a review of events, music and workshops organised at the end of August. The highlight was the creation of the collective work ‘The Little Pixel’, a mosaic mural inspired by the famous story ‘The Little Prince’ on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of its publication. Created by hundreds of residents, artists and visitors, the mural consists of 5,994 hand-coloured tiles. In previous editions, two other collective works were realised: in 2022, the complete transcription of Collodi’s Adventures of Pinocchio on a 50-metre wall by a thousand volunteers; in 2023, a mural dedicated to Gianni Rodari with poems selected from the ‘Semi DiVersi’ competition, which saw the participation of 256 poets from all over Italy. The initiative was also the subject of study for the degree course and the 2nd level Master’s in Product Design at Raffles Milano Istituto Moda e Design, with the aim of developing projects for local companies and the urban landscape. Contacts and information for the locations of the works and the biographies of the individual artists: www.thewalla.it; Facebook: www.facebook.com/thewalla.bocaverta; Instagram: www.instagram.com/the.walla.
THE WONDERWALLÀ PROGRAMME
FRIDAY 29 AUGUST
Workshop: LETTERS in SHAPE
with Riccardo Ali
Lettering workshop: drawing a calligram, letters and images inside a template.
6.30 p.m., for children aged 6 and over.
Info and costs: 349 6051804
Music by:
Reverend Paul
DJ set Funky Soul Beat
SATURDAY 30 AUGUST
THE WALLATOUR
Tour of the murals accompanied by the music of Bloko Intestinhao
5 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Info and reservations: 339 8402090
MURALES CONTEST
With the artists: Enk04 – Tomoz – Mozoner
Sponsored by Astrofat
Workshop: NOTHING IS CASUAL
with Riccardo Ali
From shop signs to restaurant blackboards: ‘casual letters’ are part of our imagination.
6.30 pm, for children aged 12 and over.
Info and costs: 349 6051804
Music by:
Hang the DJ
Live music with Diplomatico and Il Collettivo Ninco Nanco
SUNDAY 31 AUGUST
Workshop: TETRASTAMP
with G. Lori Art
Using recycled materials, natural textures, coloured inks, paper and press.
5 p.m., for children and young people.
Free workshop.
Workshop: LEGO GRAPHICS
Creative printing workshop with LEGO bricks.
Creation and printing of stamps and images on paper with coloured inks.
Info: 393 8019140
Free workshop.
Music by:
Soundcek DJ
Opening Lellegher DJ
Live music with Jay Zonta & the Papaya Groove
29 AUGUST TO 7 SEPTEMBER
The collective: ALICE IN WONDERWALK
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
First ‘horizontal’ collective work, realised on a continuous surface.
Techniques: drawing, illustration, painting, calligraphy.
Open every day from 3.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.
In the little park of Casetta Riese.
CONTACTS:
PK COMMUNICATION
Mauro Pigozzo
/ 351 6896663
