We attended the seventeenth edition of MI AMI at the Idroscalo in Milan, among festival veterans and newcomers, and there were many surprises. This year’s event was launched as a real treasure hunt for the tightly knit festival community. MI AMI reaffirms its vocation as a catalyst for new things, fostering encounters and experiences.

The lineup was endless and featured artists from vastly different genres, including Verdena, L’Officina della Camomilla, as well as Ginevra with her electronic pop. Not to be missed were the performances of Lovegang126, Giuse The Lizia, and Drast on friday; and Dargen D’Amico, Nayt, and Mecna, along with Coma Cose and Fulminacci on Saturday, alongside Rondodasosa for his first Italian show after the controversies. There were also surprise guests, including Ex Otago on the first night, Willie Peyote on stage with Fulminacci and Coez, and Frah Quintale on the Dr. Martens stage.

For more shots from MI AMI here their Instagram profile.

Ph. courtesy Andrés Juan Suarez

With only 8 euros in his pocket, 17-year-old Richie Culver leaves his home in Hull, a village in the North of England, to pursue his then-girlfriend to London. From here begins his career as an artist, driven by love and without some art studies behind him.
Culver began making art on the streets and then, unexpectedly, his work “Have you ever really loved anyone?“, a collage with a cutout of Jesse Owens, was exhibited at the Tate Modern in London during a group show. Richie Culver is now 44 years old and exhibits his work all over the world, enjoying great success thanks mainly to his blunt and crude phrases written on canvas.

His rough poetics come from his past and the phrases are often auto-biographical. Richie Culver was born into a family working class, in a disillusioned environment that preponderantly influences his thoughts and consequently his art. His struggle with the class system and contemporary masculinity is evident from his sentences.
His cynical phrases retain a dark humor and become universally understandable. With their simplicity and drawing from clichés, which the artist strongly struggles with, Culver’s phrases are able to communicate with any person, from any background and social class.

Between irony and cynicism, Richie Culver takes a stand against technology and particularly the world of social media. Emblematic is the controversial work “Did U Cum Yet?“, one of his classic spray-paintings on canvas, which immediately went viral on Instagram. In that the work itself is a critique of the inordinate use of social media, in which the artist compares the act of masturbation to the need to feed one’s ego by posting one’s art on Instagram, Culver decided to destroy the original work. He does, however, make a book that contains all the screenshots of comments in response to the piece, mostly critical ones.

Today Richie Culver is an eclectic artist. His practice ranges from painting, sculpture, photography and digital performance. Currently, his career is directed particularly toward music. His audio pieces become a continuation of his paintings, oscillating between music and poetry.

Courtesy Richie Culver

Jason deCaires Taylor is a sculptor, environmentalist and professional photographer engaged in the construction of museums and underwater sculpture parks. The topics covered by Taylor regarding the climate emergency, environmental activism and the regenerative capacity of nature.

Remaining underwater, the artist’s sculptures transform and over time provide a new habitat for marine fauna and flora. All made with durable concrete, can provide a stable platform that allows corals to stick and grow. The uniqueness of these underwater sculptures focuses on the relationship between art and environment that intersect with social issues, such as the worrying condition of the marine ecosystem destined to affect human life. Taylor’s intention is to make viewers reflect on these issues, offering a different point of view for a better future even underwater.

Taylor’s first sculpture, The Lost Correspondent – made in collaboration with a marine biologist and a local diving center – was located off the coast of Grenada, Jamaica, an area destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. The sculpture quickly transformed and over time other elements were added, 26 at the end. Thus was born the world’s first underwater sculpture park. From this moment on, Taylor’s projects have become more and more extensive up to the submerged garden of Lanzarote. Since 2009 the underwater sites made by deCaires Taylor are almost twenty around the world and visitors over half a million.

The Atlántico Museum of Lanzarote, about three hundred meters from the coast and twelve meters deep, houses an exhibition of over 250 statues that depict, life-size, some inhabitants of the island selected by James deCaires Taylor, pioneer of this new environmental and underwater frontier in the art world.

To discover more projects from Jason deCaires Taylor you can visit his profile Instagram.

Ph. courtesy Jason deCaires Taylor

Luca Lugosis – a.k.a. Lugosis – is an Italian tattooist, street artist and artist who has collaborated with brands such as Dr. Martens, Market, Nike and many others. Its versatility reworks the urban culture in a strictly personal key, closely linked to the Milanese scene.

Now active in Berlin, he travels the world in search of new stimuli and inspiration. On the other hand, Milan remains a very important place for Lugosis, starting from the metropolitan suggestions to the community that has been built with time.

The characters created by Lugosis move with agility between tattoos, illustrations and graffiti and tell his thoughts and his perception of the world. Among wacky characters and weirdos, Lugosis’ poetics reward the anti-conventional without prejudice. Ultimately, the suburban culture and aesthetics of Millennial cartoons are a great inspiration for the artist.

Now, let’s go over some of the artist’s most interesting collaborations. From the one for Nike with t-shirts and sweatshirts where Lugosis reinvents the classic logo to the more graphic one with Dr. Martens, carried out together with Strato. Also for Carhartt the two artists collaborated together in 2021 in the store of the brand in Weil am Rhein in Germany, all curated by Colab Gallery.

Ph. courtesy Lugosis, Colab Gallery, Dr. Martens, Nike

Discover more on Lugosis’s Instagram profile.