This year too we had the honor of being selected for CHEAP 's Call for artists, an experience that continues to stimulate and challenge us creatively. This year's theme, Fuck War!, could not be more dramatically current. In a historical period in which wars and genocides tragically mark our daily lives, we felt particularly motivated to create a work that would cry out against violence and destruction.
Our contribution was inspired by an old 1918 poster that called for active participation in the war effort: "Don't dream of victory - fight for it! Buy Liberty Bonds". The original image depicts the allegorical figure of Victory together with a sailor and a soldier, symbols of patriotism and the fight for victory.
In our reinterpretation, the narrative has been distorted: sailors and soldiers have been beheaded by the figure of Victory himself, who now embodies not the triumph of war, but the opposition to it. Behind him stands the words "Make Riot", a call to revolt, not for military victory, but against the structures that perpetuate war. His shield, a symbol of protection, is transformed into a declaration: "Not War".
With this work, we tried to do what the Cheap collective asked: to subvert the traditional war imagery and transform it into a cry of protest, all in the space of a poster.
Via Nazaro Sauro, Bologna
Photo by Claudia Altieri