The image of Fira Mediterrània will be transformed into a mosaic made of flowers

The Italian street artist Agostino Iacurci has designed the poster for the 19^th Fira Mediterrània Manresa.

The prestigious muralist’s design is inspired by traditional and folkloric ribbon dancing, and is conceptually connected with other contemporary disciplines.

During Fira, the Federació Catalana de Catifaires will transform the urban artist’s design into a mosaic made of flowers.

The prestigious Italian muralist Agostino Iacurci, one of the leading urban artists in the world, has been chosen by Fira Mediterrània Manresa to design the poster for the 19^th Fira that will take place from 6 to 9 of October. Lacurci has temporarily put his preference for working with large wallsin urban spaces aside in order to concentrate on the task at hand. But Lacurci's design, based on traditional folkloric dancing rendered in his fresh urban style, will make the leap into a large format design to become a mosaic made of flowers, based on an adaptation of the Fira poster by the FederacióCatalana de Catifaires. The joint project between the contemporary artist and a traditional arts collective represents the first glimpse of Fira's line up this year, featuring collective creation as its leitmotif. This activity is organised together with Milestone Project Girona, a flagship urban art festival in Europe that Fira attended last year,where it created a mural.

The 19th Fira Mediterrània poster shows three couples dancing with coloured ribbons hanging from their necks: three women at the bottom of the poster and three men at the top. Lacurci has painted the figures in his own hallmark style, using geometrical figures and pastel colours. The scene itself is based on traditional ribbon dancing, a Catalan form of folkloric dancing. That the dancers are depicted on two levels is also an allusion to the emblematic Catalan tradition of human tower building. Aiming to give the composition a modern twist and connect it with the acrobatic world of the circus, and even urban dance like hip hop and break dance, the poster features a second level of people positioned upside-down, which creates a mirror-like effect thathighlights the composition's symmetry. Lacurci's goal in combining all these elements is "for the image to represent the vitality of tradition and its connection with the present and the future".

Walls around the world

Only 30 years old and originally from Italian town of Foggia in Puglia (Italy), Lacurci has painted his street arton walls around the world. His most renowned projects include: the 300-metre long painting on the Saba school wall in Western Sahara;the project ‘Rebibbia on the Wall’,which also enabled him topaint murals on the walls of a high security prison with the help of the inmates; a large scale mural on three campus buildings at the University of Besançon in France; an installation in a skyscraper in Taipei; and more recently his first monumental painting in an underground station in India.

A mosaic made of flowers on Plana de l'Om

Lacurci's art tends to consist of large format works and the FiraMediterrània poster is no exception, destined to make the leap to the urban setting of Manresa.Going one step further than traditional banners and other mediums used for signposting, his work will be transformed into a mosaic made of flowers, through a joint collaboration with the Federació Catalana de Catifaires. The mosaic will be created on 9 October, the last day of Fira, and will be displayed on Plana de l'Om.

The project represents a collaboration with Festival Milestone Girona, where Fira helped create a mural last year.