WAILS PAPERS

Poiesis

POIESIS is the visual section curated by Anna Utopia Giordano for WAILS PAPERS, featuring an original image created by Anna Utopia Giordano for each issue. Drawing from the research and themes of each volume, the works create a contemporary visual dialogue with the histories documented in the magazine.

WAILS PAPERS is an aperiodic editorial project by Lorenzo Zambini and Stelleconfuse, dedicated to the early history of urban art.
Its research begins with a focus on Tuscany, tracing artists, places, actions and visual traces from the late 1960s to the pre-social media era. So far, the series has featured Aroldo Marinai, Lorenzo Pezzatini, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Blek le Rat, Gianni Dorigo, Paolo Buggiani and Franco Bartoletti. The issues are distributed freely at WAILS events and are not available online. The images shown here are therefore presented in low resolution.

WAILS PAPERS 01 — Aroldo Marinai — Frogmen

WAILS PAPERS 02 — Lorenzo Pezzatini — Filografia Urbana

WAILS PAPERS 03 — Ernest Pignon-Ernest — Il naturale e l'umano

WAILS PAPERS 04 — Blek le Rat — La Pecora e il Centauro

WAILS PAPERS 05 — Gianni Dorigo — La Poesia è nella Strada

WAILS PAPERS 06 — Paolo Buggiani — Urban Mythology

WAILS PAPERS 07 — Franco Bartoletti — Noman

Issue 001

Aroldo Marinai
Frogmen

The first issue was dedicated to Aroldo Marinai, one of the pioneers of urban stencil art in Italy, known for his iconic frogmen that appeared on the streets of Florence in late 1979. The photograph on the cover of WAILS PAPERS 001, visible in the images alongside, captures one of Marinai's frogmen.

The closing image of the issue, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, depicts an unprecedented version of the frogmen, in the four colours that distinguish them, watching and commenting on a curious graffiti on a wall.

WAILS PAPERS 001 was presented on 13 September 2024 during Wails & Words on Street Art, a festival dedicated to urban art, held at ZAP in Florence with Aroldo Marinai, Anna Utopia Giordano, Lorenzo Zambini and Stelleconfuse.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 01, Aroldo Marinai — Frogmen

Issue 002

Lorenzo Pezzatini
Filografia Urbana

The second issue was dedicated to Lorenzo Pezzatini and his Filografia Urbana, an artistic practice that transforms the urban space through the use of thread and its relationship with architecture. The cover of WAILS PAPERS 002 features an archival photograph from 1983 documenting one of Pezzatini's interventions. The issue was also accompanied by a special element: an authentic fragment of the characteristic thread used in his works.

The closing image of the issue, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, represents Florence, Pezzatini's birthplace, suspended and embedded within the thread. The image translates the artist's distinctive visual language into a surreal digital landscape, creating a dialogue between the city, its architecture and the material at the heart of his research.

WAILS PAPERS 002 was presented on 7 November 2024 at The Square in Florence, on the occasion of the inauguration of Pezzatini's work Le Cure di Filo.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 02, Lorenzo Pezzatini — Filografia Urbana

Issue 003

Ernest Pignon-Ernest
Il naturale e l'umano

The third issue was dedicated to Ernest Pignon-Ernest, one of the pioneers of contemporary urban art, and to his intervention Molti uomini e molte donne venuti a Certaldo, created in 1980 during the exhibition/action Il naturale e l’umano, coordinated by art critic Antonio Del Guercio. Pignon-Ernest placed printed images of men and women climbing the walls and entering the windows of buildings throughout the town.

The closing image, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, imagines a possible future emerging from the figures climbing the walls of Certaldo: a child, hybrid between human and robot, sitting at one of the same windows. The image reflects on the relationship between the natural, the human and the artificial.

WAILS PAPERS 003 was presented on 9 December 2025 at the Institut Français Firenze, with Guillaume Rousson, Stelleconfuse, Lorenzo Zambini and Anna Utopia Giordano, with Ernest Pignon-Ernest and Luca Avanzini of Collettivo Sikozel joining remotely from Paris.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 03, Ernest Pignon-Ernest — Il naturale e l'umano

Issue 004

Blek le Rat
La Pecora e il Centauro

The fourth issue was dedicated to Blek le Rat, the French artist widely regarded as one of the pioneers of stencil art and an important influence on the development of contemporary street art in Europe. The issue explores Blek le Rat's relationship with urban space and his interventions in Italy, including the works he created in Florence. Among the works documented in the volume is Chirone, the centaur that appeared on the walls of the city in 2004.

The closing image, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, takes inspiration from Chirone, reinterpreting elements of Blek le Rat's urban imagery through a new digital composition developed through a process combining artistic research, concept development, generative AI, digital image-making and extensive post-production.

WAILS PAPERS 004 was presented on 13 September 2025 during Wails & Words on Street Art at ZAP in Florence, with Blek le Rat, Anna Utopia Giordano, Lorenzo Zambini, Stelleconfuse and Libero de Cunzo.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 04, Blek le Rat — La Pecora e il Centauro

Issue 005

Gianni Dorigo
La Poesia è nella Strada

The fifth issue was dedicated to Gianni Dorigo and his research into the relationship between poetry, writing and the urban space. Its title, La Poesia è nella Strada, echoes one of the most iconic slogans associated with the walls of Paris during the May 1968 protests: “La poésie est dans la rue”.

The closing image, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, explores the idea of the wall in the digital age, as an increasing part of our social and communicative life takes place in virtual spaces. Calliope appears alongside the phrases “La solitude est une connexion stable” and “Embrasse l'imprévu, déjoue l'algorithme”, inviting us to preserve unpredictability, uncertainty and the possibility of error in a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and systems of classification.

WAILS PAPERS 005 was presented on 26 June 2026 during Wails & Words at ZAP in Florence, with Gianni Dorigo, Vittoria Brachi, Paolo Guidotti, Rossana Loperfido, Lorenzo Zambini and Stelleconfuse.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 05, Gianni Dorigo — La Poesia è nella Strada

Issue 006

Paolo Buggiani
Urban Mythology

The sixth issue was dedicated to Paolo Buggiani, one of the precursors of international urban art, whose research developed in the New York art scene of the late 1970s and focused on fire as a creative and performative element in public space.

The closing image, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, consists of four hourglasses with cube-shaped bulbs, each containing a different micro-world inspired by Buggiani's research, exploring fire, transformation, time and the city as a space for imagination.

WAILS PAPERS 006 was presented on 25 June 2026 during Wails & Words at ZAP in Florence, with Paolo Buggiani, Teresa Di Gregorio, Tommaso Tozzi, Letizia Perini, Lorenzo Zambini and Stelleconfuse.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 06, Paolo Buggiani — Urban Mythology

Issue 007

Franco Bartoletti
Noman

The seventh issue was dedicated to Franco Bartoletti and his Noman, essential human figures that inhabited the Berlin Wall during its division. Together with artists such as Kiddy Citny, Bartoletti was part of a generation that transformed the Wall from a political border into a surface for images, signs and cultural resistance.

The closing image, conceived and developed by Anna Utopia Giordano, imagines the fragments of the demolished Wall transformed into a miniature amusement park. A small community inhabits and explores the remains, collectively rewriting their meaning. The image reflects on memory, freedom, collective responsibility and the transformation of historical symbols into objects of spectacle.

WAILS PAPERS 007 was presented on 27 June 2026 during Wails & Words at ZAP in Florence, with Franco Bartoletti, Kiddy Citny, Anna Utopia Giordano, Stelleconfuse, Lorenzo Zambini, Raffaella Nardi and Adrianna Nataliya Bezhovets.

Anna Utopia Giordano — WAILS PAPERS 07, Franco Bartoletti — Noman

Poiesis

Aroldo Marinai Frogmen

Lorenzo Pezzatini Filografia Urbana

Ernest Pignon-Ernest Il naturale e l'umano

Blek le Rat La Pecora e il Centauro

Gianni Dorigo La Poesia è nella Strada

Paolo Buggiani Urban Mythology

Franco Bartoletti Noman