Urban and community renaissance in the Caserta area: the “arts village” of Valogno

Abstract

In the territory of Caserta, among the twenty-four villages near Sessa Aurunca, an exceptional presence for its intermittent history of light and shadow, grey and colours, is that of Valogno, a small village lying on a branch of the provincial road that from the Appian Way reaches Roccamonfina, on the slopes of the homonymous volcano.

This paper, integrating aspects of urban history with those of the discipline of drawing, aims to bring Valogno to the attention of the scientific community as a unique example of the application of street art to urban regeneration, in its ethical declination, before its artistic one.

The street-art project (titled “The colours of grey” by the promoters) was moved on the one hand by the need to start a path of individual renaissance, and on the other by the idea of involving the entire local community to increase its sense of civic duty, rather than to business. The project has been developed with progressive enthusiasm over the last decade, managing to characterize this village as a singular “arts village”, because it uses arts as a tool to push individual citizens to “give themselves” in favour of the welfare of the community.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.24.2020.4