Wish you were here: Toiletpaper creates city billboards for Rimini
The seaside town of Rimini is the queen of Italy's Adriatic coast. Once a glamorous destination, as portrayed by local legendary film director Federico Fellini, it has developed into a massive holiday enterprise comprising a 15km sandy beach, seafront hotels and a plethora of nightclubs.
For Italians, Rimini also carries a cultural legacy that plies a fine line between nobility and bad taste. With this in mind, the town's mayor has invited Pierpaolo Ferrari and Maurizio Cattelan to drape the area with Toiletpaper irreverence. Curated by Maria Cristina Didero and unveiled across the city on 1 July, the pair present a portrait of the area's traditional holiday vibes, where food meets sensuality and fashion is combined with provocation and insanity.
Cattelan and Ferrari were commissioned by the city council to produce the eight piece series, printed on thousands of billboards in bright Toiletpaper colors, with ‘Saluti da Rimini’ ('Greetings from Rimini') typed across each oversized postcard.
Part advertising campaign, part public art exercise, the set of posters were selected from Toiletpaper’s archive to reflect the area’s contrasting realities, from its Roman history to the bodybuilders populating its beaches. The images include a humorous play on a lobster red sun-tan, lewd displays of virility, interesting applications of toothpaste and a variety of food-related constructions, all conceived in the magazine's inimitable style.
'This project is an extraordinary occasion to look at the city’s complexity through the eyes of Cattelan and Ferrari,' explains Didero, who worked closely with the pair to develop the project. 'They were able to portray Rimini's icons through their imagination, giving the city a new point of view on reality.'
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published