Disclaimer: this blog post contains sentimentality and personal matters.

I know no better way to discover a city that walk it, but sometimes means of transport help. There’s no tube station near my house, but you can reach it by the overground, which I love, ’cause you can experience the constant changing of the landscape outside the windows. The overground is fast like the tube, but it’s ipnotizing like riding on the bus. It’s like being on a roller-coaster. The huge buildings of the city, right after a park, then empty parking lots, then a row of backyards, tower blocks, parks again, Victorian houses, then blocks of red brick houses, then abandoned spaces, a mural.
Thanks to the caption on display near the bus stop, I’ve found out the mural was made by the children of William Patten Primary School with poets John Hegley, Aoife Mannix and Francesca Beard. It’s reassuring to know you are in a place where words like “freedom” and “welcome” are still releated and valued.

I kept thinking about this during the day, while I’ve got the chance to saw the exhibition “American dream pop to the present” at the British Museum, in a tour guided by one of the curators: Catherine Daunt.

If a dream came true is the fulfillment of every possible desire I may say I’ve found my America. I don’t desire anything else, I just love waking up in the morning, going outside and enjoying all the new things life has to offer me.

However, before leaving Italy, on the cover of my personal organizer I pasted the image of a painting by Tom Wesselmann, depicting a US flag, while in the first page I put another crop. It reads: “My story is entirely to be written.”

Continuing surfing the web I’ve found the amazing tours lead by Sam Roberts, “dedicated to ‘ghostsigns’, the typically fading remains of painted advertising on walls. The aim is to raise awareness and understanding of ghostsigns.”

How about him, as a partner for exporting Nomicosecittà in this small, fascinating island?

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Published on 03-Mar-2017
Tags: American dream pop to the present, Aoife Mannix, art, British Museum, Catherine Daunt, design, environment, Francesca Beard, ghostsigns, heritage, John Hegley, kiki smith, london, mural, Nomicosecittà, poetry, Sam Roberts, stoke newington, Tom Wesselmann, U.s.a., William Patten Primary School