Dream, one word. And the image of a child on a paper boat carrying a notebook in his hand. It is a 2021 TVBOY work that moves and leaves no one indifferent. Paper Boat Dreams called it the Italian artist and it is inspired by an article about a boy who was shipwrecked in the Mediterranean and who had sewn his school grades to his clothes, convinced that his good grades would be the best passport of him for the future. TVBOY imagined the story in another way: “a boy who delivers the notes to the European Parliament: failing in Solidarity and Refugee Rights”.
"In addition, the paper boat represents childhood and that desire to reach a better world," explains the creator as we walk the streets of La Roca Village, where you can see this graffiti along with 20 others from his last stage. “Childhood is a recurring theme in my works because they are free of preconceived ideas”, explains Salvatore Benintende, the real name of TVBOY.
"I'm better at painting than talking," warns the multifaceted and provocative artist based in Barcelona before we begin to discover the thousand realities that he describes and his claims such as freedom, respect, diversity and empowerment in the air exhibition called Streets of Love TVBOY x La Roca Village, which will be exhibited until September 30 and which vindicates the universal values supported by The Bicester Collection, the label to which the Barcelona shopping complex belongs.
The transgressive and contemporary style of TVBOY, one of the international exponents of the Neo Pop Street Art movement, is impregnated with messages such as Love, Respect, The Future is Female or Save The Planet Earth on the different façades of the Village. A whole declaration of principles, as can be seen in another of his works, in which a child is seen throwing the word Hate into the trash, a symbology in which "hate is garbage that cannot be recycled," he reflects. the artist.
It was at the age of 16 in Milan that TVBOY discovered this style. “When I saw a train full of graffiti for the first time, I fell in love because I understood that it is a very open art that reaches the whole world”, he tells me. Since then he has been building his speech and with the passage of time maturing in different aspects. His are the famous kisses between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, or Donald Trump and Dad Francisco, for example. That they are nothing more than a metaphor for reconciliation and dialogue. “Before, I portrayed celebrities and politicians, today I prefer to do it with ordinary people, on foot, an unknown child, a woman who can be all women…In my career the rights of refugees have been great themes in my works, racism, women's empowerment and gender equality”, summarizes.
Accustomed to using the street as his main means of communication, he admits that he has lost some of his irreverence and rebellion. “It may not be so much now, although I started out being so. Because I have to admit it, my works have entered a world that is also institutions, museums or places like La Roca Village that have left me great freedom”, he answers with his slow and calm voice, the one that becomes firm through powerful graffiti , who paints because he feels the need to do it when there is a subject that impacts him.
TVBOY's works have been seen on the streets of many countries but have also been exhibited in museums such as PAC Milano or MDM Museum, as well as in many art galleries in Rome, Barcelona, Munich, Copenhagen, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Miami, sometimes alongside works by famous names like Warhol, Lichtenstein, Haring or Basquiat.
TVBOY's art always provokes reflection on the part of the viewer, as in Unlock My Future, which represents a little girl who is capable of painting her future and who symbolizes the freedom of women to decide for themselves. The work will serve to raise funds as part of The Bicester Collection's DO GOOD program, which aims to unlock the future of women and children and which takes on special relevance this year on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of La Roca Village.
Streets of Love TVBOY x La Roca Village is a manifesto for the future that is also part of the commitment to support art, talent and creativity that La Roca Village has been promoting since its inception. And TVBOY is grateful for the opportunity: “Usually I go down the street at night without permission and do my work in a hurry. For the first time I have had the chance to do it calmly and with people watching. It is very important because art had become very conceptual, it had moved away from ordinary people and this for me is bringing art to the street so that it belongs to everyone”.
