Photos by Emilaino Rubinacci
Federico Massa‘s latest piece was commissioned for a cinema wall. The owners of the cinema asked the Italian street artist, based in New York, to include superheroes in his project. The artist decided to follow orders but, of course, add his own twist. Federico painted traditional heroes such as Spiderman, Superman, Batman, Hulk and many more. “I tried to maintain my own [original] vision by changing the costumes. I tried making the composition as weird as I could.” By switching the characters’ costumes, the artist makes a commentary on super-heroes and their inter-changeable roles, their often bland, product-like reasons for being. Perhaps most notably, Batman and Superman are victim of a direct switch here. Knowing that these two superheroes were the protagonists of two sequels in the past year, it seems more than likely that this piece, painted for a cinema, depicting characters within a theater room, is a harsh commentary on the movie industry. This piece is quite a departure from Massa’s traditional pieces, but if you look closer, you will find one of his original characters making an appearance. “That’s my real signature!” he explains.
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