Amore, da Firenze is a study in language, technology and public art. This projects aims to add depth to and continue the conversation started by the work of the Movement for the Emancipation of Poetry (MeP). The MeP, founded in Florence in March 2010, is an artistic movement that pursues the goal of reinstilling in people interest and respect for poetry in its different forms.

In July 2022, I lived and studied in Italy, studying arts practice at the SRISA School of Art in Florence. During my time there, I studied the many public artworks, sanctioned and unsanctioned. Outside the formidable buildings filled with historic academic art, on the beige walls of the city streets are all kinds of hap-hazardly wheat-pasted material. Among these are the poems, in plain type, on printer paper, wheatpasted throuhgout the city. Admittedly, I never learned Italian prior to this trip. I used the google translate feature to take photos of these poems and translate them for myself, these awkward translations, somehow even more poignant stripped of their grammar and context. This is the moment this project was born. 

In a way, it’s a collaboration between me, the MeP and google translate. 


After translating the poems into a broken english, I took the direct translation and created prints. These prints I then wheatpasted, side-by-side MeP’s work, as well as throughout the city. The intent was to create a recognizable visual language.



This project culminated with the art show at SRISA, “Love Letters to Florence,” where I installed my work as a series of booklet “pages” that told the story of how this project came to be. 



©farah.alkayedalkayedfarah@gmail.com2024
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