June 15th-30th, 1984, Milan
The project ‘Swimming across Milan’ took place from June 15th to June 30th, 1984, sponsored by the Cultural Commission of the City of Milan and with the assistance of AAPI (Association of Italian Advertising Companies) which donated 100 advertising spaces.
One hundred original pieces measuring 6×3 meters or 12×3 meters had been previously prepared in the studio to fit the large billboards used for advertisements.
Each single work painted by the artist with a brush and black printing ink was made up of 12 or 24 sheets of standard white paper measuring 140×100 centimeters.
The total surface covered by these works was 1,800 square meters.
During the event the newspaper ‘Il Giorno’ published a number of unnamed works from the series. The originals themselves were unnamed, unsigned and contained no text.
In America it’s different…
I live in Europe where I was born and therefore have always considered the importance of the frame. Frames, even if only a few centimeters wide, exist on large billboard advertisements as in smaller posters defining the ‘official’ space given to publicity and communication, just as in China and Africa where spaces are kept to pin up ‘news’ or ‘messages’[1].
[1] Misheff, A., Amplified painting, Milan, Giancarlo Politi ed., 1986.