Manu Invisible, a well-known Sardinian street artist, was a guest this evening in Iglesias on the initiative of the University of the Third Age (Ute), where he held a special lesson in which he recounted his experience in Ukraine through a video made together with videomaker Enrico Monni.
The artist was introduced by city councilor Ubaldo Scanu, who defined him as "an artist who puts his works in the foreground, rather than himself." Scanu recalled the first meeting with Manu Invisible, which took place in 2018, when the artist created the mural Radici, which still stands out on the external façade of the Lepori hall, overlooking via Isonzo.
Manu Invisible told his beginnings, from when he studied at the Art High School of Cagliari, continuing his education between the academy and the workshops of Florence, where he specialized in frescoes. For many years he has presented himself with a mask and, as much as his works - rich in symbolism and profound messages - he maintains an aura of mystery that always arouses great curiosity in those who meet him.
In 2024, the artist went to Bucha, a Ukrainian city not far from Kiev, hit by numerous Russian bombings. On the wall of an abandoned building he painted a white dove, trapped by a frayed Ukrainian flag, which clips its wings.
"In Bucha I saw a lot of rubble and many mass graves," the artist said. "I was able to observe with my own eyes what television filters and brings into our homes: the violence and the remains of what was destroyed. More than 90% of the town has been rebuilt, but what they couldn't rebuild is everything that the war took away: the innocents, the families and all the love and bond that united them."
The artist then explained how he worked in such a complex context: "In these environments it is very difficult to attribute a meaning to the works that are created. Where there is suffering, the artistic gesture is perceived as an attempt to cover a lack, but in reality it is a way to take that suffering by the hand".
