Guerrilla Spam’s mural at Fuoritempo and Canale

The movement of the sun has always governed the rhythm of human life. It serves a dual purpose: it gives off heat (which is why it is red) and light (which is why it is white), and its light casts shadows that help us to perceive the passage of time.

On the left-hand side of the building, a figure is trying to reach the sun “making its way” along a luminous line that is also a spiral – for the ancients, a symbol of the perpetual movement of the sun and time – from Sardinia to Northern Europe and on to Mesopotamia. The sun lies “beyond” a portal flanked by two columns; we can see it and feel its warmth, yet it belongs to another world.

On the other side of the building, “on this side”, lies our world, made up of cogs, wheels, mechanisms and clocks: they are our artificial attempt to imitate the natural world, the mechanical evolution of sundials, the first rudimentary instruments for measuring time. These gears are taken from the Arabic manuscripts of Al-Jazarī, who, by combining engineering, aesthetics and entertainment, sought to imitate the impossible.

A small detail: at the edge of the scene, a cat is blowing a conch shell; it is a profound call that marks the passing of time, strikes the hour, and signals that something is about to happen – and we can all hear it.