Migration is as human as it is aviary, and Italian graffiti writer/mural painting duo the WASP collective tells us with this new painting of a stork. Eddyone a.k.a. Edoardo Kucich and Ride a.k.a. Gabriele Guareschi are on top of a building in Turin painting a vertical mural that celebrates extols the elegant migratory bird here where families have been living in “emergency housing”, having escaped strife in their home countries.

WASP Crew. Torino, Italy. June 2018. (photo © WASP Crew)

Whether the journey is caused by hopeful aspiration or horrified escape, the symbol of the nest in a tree or tucked beneath the eves is also temporary. The housing provides shelter from the elements, a place to have respite before rising to face the new day.

“In the nest we have hidden the symbol of the infinite,” Edoardo says of the stylized lemniscate hovering atop the circular cluster of twigs beneath the large billed stork. “We wanted to represent the fact that over the years, generations of families from all over the world always have emigrated,” he says, perhaps thinking of the families living beneath his feet while he paints.

“These events that have always occurred in the history of humanity, and nothing can stop them.”

WASP Crew. Torino, Italy. June 2018. (photo © WASP Crew)

WASP Crew. Torino, Italy. June 2018. (photo © WASP Crew)

WASP Crew. Torino, Italy. June 2018. (photo © WASP Crew)

WASP Crew. Torino, Italy. June 2018. (photo © WASP Crew)

WASP Crew. Torino, Italy. June 2018. (photo © WASP Crew)