For 2024, the Bologna-based collective CHEAP has gathered posters from around the world to take a stand against war. This theme feels inevitable given the alarming rise in global conflicts. In the past four years, wars have increased by 40%, reaching 56 active conflicts, the highest number recorded since the end of World War II. These figures come from the 2024 edition of the Global Peace Index, which measures peace levels in 163 countries based on security, conflict, and militarization.

CHEAP’s message is clear: reject war imagery, sabotage the rhetoric that supports it, and question the systems that legitimize it. The 200 posters displayed on the streets of Bologna in early September deliver this message through a visual and symbolic détournement. Featuring rifles shooting dollars, neon pink tanks, and eagles disguised as doves, the campaign highlights war as a product of capitalism, emphasizing its colonial and economic roots.

Many of the works reflect the ongoing massacre in Palestine, which, according to CHEAP, is not a war but a genocide that much of the media refuses to properly investigate. The posters call for peace and justice, urging the redirection of military spending into education and healthcare, imagining societies free from the grief of war.

The posters will remain on display in Bologna throughout September, with the project presentation having taken place at the Emergency festival in Reggio Emilia on September 7, in homage to Dr. Gino Strada, who was always against war without identifying as a pacifist.

ph. courtesy Giulia Rosco