The name of the truck, chosen by the artist during her stay in Pisa, comes from Wolof, the Senegalese language […] the largest community, and among the most undervalued immigrants that mainly worked as illegal hawkers in the central streets. Besides them, the artist also noticed the large numbers of students,[…] These two groups appeared to be the largest ‘communities’ that needed their voices to be lifted to the public’s eye.

This public event consisted of a city tour with a truck, decorated with seventies and African style patterned wallpaper, upon which a local freaky music group of students placed upon the truck, invited people to the concert, planned for the Common House, by megaphone and by improvised music sessions in the city’s most famous spots.

During the tour the ephemeral nature of the truck collided with the weight and monumentality of the landscapes that the medieval city of Pisa provides. This tour was able to generate a sort of dialogue between the rooted, solid and never changing nature of the city with new issues that, although in their temporary, nomadic and precarious conditions, were asking to be recognised and considered within the politics of the town. Papadimitriou’s work created a “city in transition,” able to produce “public spaces hic et nunc.”

Matteo Lucchetti

Excerpts from an unpublished text, 2007.