Stratos

A few months ago, I was invited to repaint the wall where I had created a mural back in 2017. I gladly accepted the opportunity to return and breathe new life into this space, once again connecting the piece with the rural memory of the area.

Based on a photograph from the 1960s, this mural revives an almost forgotten gesture: covering a haystack with mud to protect the straw from rain. This now-vanished traditional practice was a collective, artisanal, and effective way of preserving agricultural resources before the advent of more complex industrial structures.

In the image, three young villagers work together on an improvised ladder, applying the mud with rudimentary but precise tools. Their effort, suspended at great height, mirrors the work of today's muralists: also collective, manual, often carried out from ladders or scaffolding, and in service of a community.

The title, Stratos, refers to geological layers, but also to the strata of time and memory. The scene becomes a kind of visual palimpsest: an image from the past layered onto a present-day façade, creating a dialogue between crafts, textures, and temporalities.