These are the main ingredients of the luminous representation created by Goboservice for the municipal administration of Reggio Calabria on the occasion of the anniversary of Valentine’s Day. The creatives of the company have conceived for the feast of lovers a synthesis between two strongly identifying symbols of youthful passion: the “Kiss” by Francesco Hayez and the famous Balcony of Verona.
Both refer to the timeless and romantic bond between Romeo and Juliet, however, connoting it with important civil references. The possibilities given by the use of three powerful Golux 1000 projectors and the “full color” gobos used and made available free of charge for the occasion, allowed the short experiment that lasted one night in full respect of the ancient walls of the Aragonese Castle of Reggio Calabria dating back to the fifteenth century. Thanks to the artistic use of lighting technology declined in 3D version, for the first time in history the two lovers were able to kiss in public overlooking that balcony that never hosted them together, protected by the mighty crenellated curtain that already defended the city on the occasion. of the many assaults in its history.
And while they remained motionless in their effusion, dozens of boys amplified that passion with selfies and posts on social media accompanied by the romantic notes of an orchestra. And never mind if this made the artistic purists turn up their noses. It also happened with the Eiffel Tower. In the intentions of the promoters there was not only the desire to share a romantic party.
The writing above the three-dimensional image “No one is like you” can have deeper meanings in addition to the immediate one that wants it to be directed to one’s beloved. The painting that inspired them in the Goboservice workshops was made by Hayez in Milan in 1859. The “Kiss” depicts a pair of young lovers, Romeo and Juliet precisely, united by an intense impulse which, in the logic of the Risorgimento of which Hayez was a conscious bearer, assumed precise allegorical and patriotic connotations. These symbolic messages did not go unnoticed by the Venetian painter’s contemporaries and they decreed part of his success, so much so that the author was pushed to create three other versions of the same painting by changing only the details. And so Romeo is none other – in the author’s artistic conception – than a volunteer leaving for the war of independence “photographed” in a poignant greeting to his beloved. And she herself becomes a symbol of that homeland for which one sacrifices oneself. The poet Francesco Dall’Ongaro wrote: “May a robust, sincere generation come out of that affectionate kiss, take life as it comes, and make it fruitful with the love of beauty and truth”. An invitation valid in Milan in 1859 as well as in Reggio Calabria in 2017. The best wish a young mayor could make to his fellow citizens: to live private and community life with passion and participation.
