After Rome came Milan, with a series of bombshell announcement: the inauguration of the Propaganda Tattoo Temple and the exhibition of Hollywood photographer Estevan Oriol, the author of This Is Los Angeles, and Paolo Cenciarelli , who a few months ago signed the publication of the Vangelo MMXVIII (both published by DRAGO Publisher) at The Don Gallery.

10 and 11 May, to leave no time to take a breath, but to enjoy the majesty of the two events in one voracious puff: different and somewhat similar, the two inaugurations saw protagonists in the first event, joining the second for ethical support and personal pleasure.

The second official stage of Estevan Oriol’s European tour (without counting Naples and the suburbs, which was visited for the sole purpose of capturing street images for the photographer) was the first step in via Pestalozzi of Milan. The doors open at 18, and things have already begun: Scarful, Andrea Rodolico and Pepemaniak already present and ready. The square space in front welcomes the ever-growing number of guests and slowly scans one face after another, recognizing familiar traits.

The rapper Ensi, having bought the book This Is Los Angeles, asks Oriol what fans usually ask him for: a photo, a memory. Noyz Narcos moves among the people accompanied by his beautiful and smiling Lu, who immediately attracts Oriol’s lens, while Egreen, usually no stranger to the microphone, is found at the decks searching for the right tracks to match the vibe. The more times passes, the more the tattooed guests and the glories of underground culture multiply: among the founders of writing one glimpses Flycat Y1, appearing elusive among the crowd, Ciro Buccolieri together with the boss Andrew Propaganda, Paolo Cenciarelli who sets up his own photographs (once again) next to those of the master Estevan Oriol, while he undertakes speeches with Carlotta Vagnoli and continuously greets new faces and old friends. Shortly after The Myda staff, creators of grillz, arrive and join the same brigade as last week in Nuova Fiera, Rome at the anniversary of the tatto convention, a springboard to launch this similar enterprise.

Here, the Propaganda Tattoo Temple has welcomed its faithful and on its altar virgin skin is sacrificed to an ink that will always bear its uroboros mark.

Drago is a proud part of the opening: the art on the walls is a precious cross-collection of Oriol and Cenciarelli, who together pose different perspectives on different places. Other subjects become analogous in the cut of the shot and in the choice of a balanced monochrome against the harshness of the subject. A more burnt light, a darker one more marked by that captured face, by that sign on the hand, by that annoying beard; a softer one for the features of a feminine form, although strong-willed and severe, a more homogeneous one for the portrait quickly snapped while lowering the car window.

In the same way, with different atmosphere and the sound of rain that threatens and beats noisily outside, The Don Gallery by Matteo Donini fills its walls with the same authors: the photos arranged in a more geometric and less linear way. It is distinguished by the soft light and the creative touch of affixing street shots that show graffiti on the gallery wall below the photos. In amongst the photos lies the stroke of that marker used to tag the streets.

Milan versus Rome? Not always.

Artists

Estevan Oriol

Paolo Cenciarelli

Events

Propaganda Tattoo Temple

The Don Gallery