Swastikas on the walls turn into giant cupcakes with orange sugar paste and the words “My Hitler” to “My Muffins”.
All in one working day for the Italian street artist, who fights against racism by turning the hate symbols displayed on graffiti into images of delicacies.
“I take care of my city by replacing symbols of hatred with delicious food,” says the 39-year-old artist, whose real name is Pierpaolo Spinache and his artistic name is Chibo (the Italian word for food).
Recently, on a sunny morning, he was informed by his 363,000 followers on Instagram that in a small tunnel on the outskirts of Verona, there were painted black and racist insults.
He hurried there, wearing his characteristic hat, took his paints out of his bag and threw himself at work, while the cars passed by him honking.
Cover the slogans with a bright piece of margarita pizza and a caprese salad, with mozzarella, tomatoes and basil.
So a swastika turned into a huge red tomato.
As he created the work on the walls of the tunnel, which took about 15 minutes for each piece, the drivers passed by him, staring at him and greeting him.
In recent years, human rights groups have warned of growing racism in the country following waves of immigration from Africa.
Fascist culture and dictator Benito Mussolini still have a hard core of followers in Italy.
Chibo has also become famous in Verona, but he has also created enemies: “Chibo, sleep with the lights on!”, Someone wrote on a wall.
But he turned the threat into … ingredients for a gnocchi recipe.
“When it comes to extremists it is never good because they are violent people, they are used to violence, but they are also cowards and very stupid. The important thing is to rediscover values ​​that we may have forgotten, especially anti-fascism and the fight against “of totalitarian regimes that have emerged since World War II. We need to remind ourselves of these values,” said the Italian artist.
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