FEDERICO FRUSCIANTE VIVE

Ninjart's speech: "Some people have something different, something that sets them apart from others, and their memory remains deeply imprinted in my mind. Federico Frusciante was one of them. I remember the first time I went to rent VHS tapes at Videovip, I think in the early 2000s, in Piazza della Vittoria, and this big man with the deep, low voice almost always wouldn't look me in the eye and told me the movie I'd chosen was crap... yet he instilled respect and kindness in me.

My house has a cinematic feel. When I heard what happened, a bad feeling came over me. You and I weren't close friends, but you were somehow part of my life... part of the lives of so many.

I'm a painter, and in those days I thought I had to honor you in the way I know how. Then I got a call from a guy, Michael Coppola, who, with his wife Francesca, owns the Borgo Pizza pizzeria on Via Verdi, the street where you lived with Eleonora, your wife. He tells me he'd like to have a Federico's portrait on his shutters, and asks if I can do it. I was so honored.

These are Michael's words: "Federico was a soldier of the seventh art, and he expressed it in a lucid and direct manner. This project was born from the need to remember that his untimely passing didn't leave a void, but a silent presence that continues to exist.

Thanks to Ninjart (Francesco Spanò) and his sensitivity, this invisible presence has found form, becoming somehow visible.

Federico's value is measured by the profound traces he left. This tribute is one of them and demonstrates how his passing changed our landscape.

Federico remains with us today. He's gonna live forever."