MAP OF STREET ART IN BARI
Discovering the street art works scattered around the city and the artists who created them
In the fifty years since its appearance on the streets of New York, street art continues to be an artistic practice that never ceases to define the cultural identity of the places where it manifests itself. Similarly, street art in Bari has become a distinctive feature of the city, and can be found in various areas both central and peripheral.
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1. Murales in former Caserma Rossani and station area in Bari.
Arriving in Bari by train, one can immediately drop by the former Rossani Barracks, an 8-hectare area closed in 1990 and then occupied since 2014. Every year it hosts Ca.Co.Fest, the independent illustration festival featuring international artists. Walking up from Via Giulio Petroni, you can admire Sam III and Elias Tano, but if you find the door open, don’t miss the chance to take a look at the beautiful works inside as well.
Via Giulio Petroni, Sam III – 2013
A native of Elche, Spain, born in 1980, Sam III is one of Spain’s most impactful street artists. With roots in graffiti from the 1990s, he has evolved to create murales all over the world, using a variety of artistic techniques, including sculpture, wall art, stop-motion video and animation. Known for his large “shadows,” anonymous black silhouettes charged with alternative meanings that offer a strong aesthetic impact, ensuring a direct transmission of his messages. Intentional contrasts between white and painted spaces seamlessly integrate the wall surface into the artistic narrative. Infused with poetry and irony, Sam III’s works often conceal reflective and dark undertones, reflecting the reality of life and deepening the human condition, shaped by the artist’s international travels.
Via Giulio Petroni, Elias Taño – 2019
Elías Taño (Tenerife, 1983) is an illustrator, writer and graphic designer known for his involvement in social movements and the irreverent attitude reflected in his art. This work, born from his meeting with the collective of the former Rossani Barracks, aims to portray the logic of power between social classes and nationalities. “Here I talk about anti-capitalism, migration, worker exploitation, racism and feminism, understood as a radical concept and not a white, European, Western one,” the artist said in an interview, “a feminism that includes all comrades, including Latin American, Arab, African, Asian, women outside the Western logic. In the mural I made in Bari there are represented all those who struggle against European and Western centrality”.
Subpass Duca degli Abruzzi, vari artisti – 2022
The nonprofit volunteer association Retake has been working for years in the redevelopment of Bari using art as an engine for a new beauty of the city. Retaker citizens are responsible for several interventions, such as these works found along the wall of the underpass: there is Gino Strada painted by Daniela Sersale, Raffaella Carrà by artist Giuseppe D’Asta, and the Pasolini created by street artist FNKey?
Subpass via Emanuela Mola, vari artisti – 2023
Six local artists designed these works inspired by sustainable mobility as part of the “Air in Color” initiative: Nadia Gelsomina, Giuseppe D’Asta, Daniela Giarratana, Amalia Tucci, Silvio Paradiso, and Daniela Sersale.
Underpass Quintino Sella, Ozmo – 2013
Gionata Gesi, aka “Ozmo,” is a pivotal figure in Italian street art: starting with graffiti, then moving on to oil painting and technology. Ozmo, born in 1975, has played a key role in redesigning Italian street art since 2001. With a marked graphic realism, his versatile iconography embraces diverse environments, from social centers to museums. Among the most significant works are the monumental wall in Breno (2015) with Minerva and interventions in Milan, London and Miami. In 2012, his entry into major museums marked a milestone in the history of Italian street art. In 2013 he arrived in Bari and chose what represents the founding myth of our city, with the three versions of St. Nicholas.
Underpass Quintino Sella, Angela Matarrese – 2023
Retake’s tribute to the maestro and “New Cinema Paradise” near a historic cinema in the city, now Anchecinema.
Via Vito Fornari, Giuseppe D’Asta – 2023
Bari-based artist and illustrator Giuseppe D’Asta has given numerous works to the city, testifying to an artistic credo deeply rooted in social and community. In “Myths of the Sea,” we reflect on the journey along the wall of Modugno Middle School, and find ourselves listening to the sea with its promises.
2. Street art pieces in the city center and waterfront of Bari
Let’s start exploring the best street art in downtown Bari, in an ideal itinerary from Corso Vittorio Emanuele to the Torre Quetta waterfront. On the way, let’s not overlook an excursion to Bari Vecchia as well, in search of street art practices hidden among the alleys. Artists such as Fred Le Chevalier, the Lediesis collective, Merio, Tv Boy, Kris Rizek, and Blub have also left their traces in Bari.
Piazza Libertà, Sten&Lex – 2013
Sten&Lex, the Italian artist duo composed of Sten (born in Rome in 1982) and Lex (born in Taranto in 1982), are leading figures in global urban art, known as national pioneers of stencil art. Beginning in the early 2000s on the walls of Rome, their stencil journey has evolved from small works inspired by American television programs to groundbreaking contributions such as the school of the hole in 2003, whereby they use halftones to create optical effects that move from figuration to abstraction. Their impressive portfolio includes participation in such renowned events as the Cans Festival organized by Banksy in 2008, Nuart in Stavanger, CityLeaks in Cologne and Living Walls in Atlanta. Their recent exhibition, “Sten Lex. Rebirth,” held at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome in 2020-21, further solidified their artistic legacy. The Bari work is their first totally abstract work.
Piazza Diaz, Eltono – 2013
French artist Eltono (b. 1975) spent a decade working in Madrid, followed by four years in Beijing, and now resides in the south of France. A flâneur, committed walker and chronic observer, Eltono uses public spaces as canvas, studio and muse. His keen sensitivity to the environment and understanding of the unpredictable nature of the street are his main tools for creating art. Having worked in over ninety cities, Eltono has exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums around the world, including Tate Modern, Somerset House, Fundacion Miro, and Artium Museum. For the past fifteen years, his gallery work has focused on the challenge of exhibiting public art in private interior spaces.
Piazza Diaz, 108 – 2013
The artist known as 108 started from traditional writing and found his dimension in painting large, mysterious figures that invade public spaces, becoming one of the most influential abstract writing artists in Italy. Unlike traditional writers who use lettering to express their nicknames, 108 uses the technique of numering, numbers instead of letters. His work always almost completely abstract, surreal and minimal finds inspiration in the graffiti of Neolithic Europe in the twentieth-century avant-garde.
Piazza Diaz, Maupalm – 2016
Maupal is a Roman street artist, already famous for his portrait of Pope Francis as Superman. He arrives in Bari for the feast of St. Nicholas, depicting the saint as a bridge between the two fronts. The work titled #eastwest draws inspiration from the Bible, verse 103:12 “as the East is far from the West, so God (a.k.a. love) turns away our faults from us.”
Lungomare corso Trieste, Hell’ O Monster – 2013
HELL’O Monsters, the artistic collaboration of Brussels-based duo Jérôme Meynen and Antoine Detaille, has been touring Europe for more than a decade. Trained in painting, they deliberately broke free from the traditional codes of street art, distancing themselves from the label of street artists. Formed as a trio in 2008 and then becoming a powerful duo in 2014, Meynen and Detaille draw inspiration from different elements of art history. Their murals show hybrid beings-part plant, part bird-while the once dominant human form now appears as a fragmented remnant. The duo’s intense and vibrant color palette, ranging from vivid hues to delicate pastels, plays a key role in their eye-catching creations.
Corso Vittorio Veneto, Dem – 2015
HELL’O Monsters, the artistic collaboration of Brussels-based duo Jérôme Meynen and Antoine Detaille, has been touring Europe for more than a decade. Trained in painting, they deliberately broke free from the traditional codes of street art, distancing themselves from the label of street artists. Formed as a trio in 2008 and then becoming a powerful duo in 2014, Meynen and Detaille draw inspiration from different elements of art history. Their murals show hybrid beings-part plant, part bird-while the once dominant human form now appears as a fragmented remnant. The duo’s intense and vibrant color palette, ranging from vivid hues to delicate pastels, plays a key role in their eye-catching creations.
3. Street art in San Pio and San Paolo city districts
Palaces in San Pio, various artists – 2014 e 2015
The Pigment Workroom collective brought five Italian street artists, Alberonero, Alfano, Ciredz, Geometric Bang and Tellas, to this suburban Bari neighborhood with their 2014 project “Enziteto Real Estate.” The following year they invited writer Lauda to create one of his works, also on the facade of a building.
Museum Quarter San Paolo, various artists – 2021
Stopping at Giacomino Pugliese Street, we can admire the ten works born from the St. Paul’s Museum Quarter project. Top Pugliese artists such as Skolp, Rizek, AweR, Chekos and Davide DPA joined James Reka, David Pompili, Manu Invisible and Hogre in this historic urban art event.
4. The hidden street art masterpiece of Bari
Via Fanelli 206/16, Blu e Ericailcane – 2022
A tribute to the Odyssey of migrants who have found a home in the Occupied Socrates experience. Ericailcane and Blu once again combine their art with the places that host it, in a kind of magical blessing. The now vacated structure still tells the stories of all the migrants with this four-handed work from 2012.
Ericailcane is a street artist, illustrator, designer and sculptor originally from Belluno, Italy. He began to make a name for himself at the beginning of the new millennium with graffiti in walls and social centers in Bologna. Ericailcane’s works are characterized by a scientific precision with which the artist outlines disturbing animals with human movements, placed in estranging contexts, sometimes charged with social or ecological significance. Very important is his collaboration with street artist Blu, with whom he has shared since the beginning the creation of numerous multi-handed murals, almost always of enormous dimensions. Blu, an artist whose name or date of birth is not publicly known, also takes his first steps in the Bologna scene, becoming according to The Guardian reported as one of the ten best street artists in 2011.
