The Sottopassaggio delle Cure is a very popular place in Florence. It used to be a dangerous place where homeless people and drug addicts would hang out, now it is a beautiful gallery tunneling a connection between the northern part and southern part of the city. This strange labrynth of passageways is neccesary because Florence is the victim of some rather poor civil engineering and has been cut into two parts by a terribly designed railroad system. It is a beautiful gallery in the two senses: (1) it is an underground tunnel twisting it’s way underneath traffic that allows pedestrians to freely cross the railroads without engaging in the risky business of track and traffic crossing, (2) it has slowly evolved into an open source art gallery thanks in part (most part) to Toto A.K.A. l’angelo del sottopassaggio – a bum with an undefined past who lives behind a small door near the center of the sottopassaggio, and he ussually spends his days cleaning up the messes people (and artists) leave, decorating the halls with strange flowers and incense sticks, and greeting every pedestrian who passes by, often trying to lure them into listening to his stories of former glory. Toto’ has also appointed himself the role of “curator” of the gallery, and he basically decides who is entitled to paint the walls with some sort of graffiti art, as well as when and where they can do it.

One day, we asked Toto’ whether we could exhibit our art into his gallery. Toto’ reaction was rather strange, but he eventually told us that we could paint whatever wall we decide to, as long as we would be painting only between 8pm till 8am.

The same night, after having bought a large number of paint and brushes, we all gathered together into the sottopassaggio and started painting. We started around 9 or 10 pm and we kept going until 8am sharp.