Goffredo Parise's 1976 article on graffiti as a landmark in Italian media coverage of writing

Goffredo Parise's 1976 article 'E nacque la religione dei graffiti' is recognized as the first Italian media document on graffiti writing with critical depth, comparable to the New York Times' 1971 piece on Taki 183. Parise, a prominent Italian writer and reporter, was fascinated by New York's graffiti, which he called 'the first national-popular American culture.' He saw graffiti as a revolutionary ideology that replaces codified urban signs with 'a free, indecipherable language, devoid of economic meaning.' The article contrasts with contemporary Italian media coverage, which in 2016 associated writing predominantly with crime: out of about forty Corriere della Sera articles on the topic, only four were not negative. Parise's piece also cites a 1973 Volvo advertisement as an example of resistance to co-optation, arguing that the graffiti-covered wall is 'infinitely more civilized than the sparkling car.' The article notes that Jean Baudrillard reached similar conclusions in his 1974 essay 'Kool Killer,' later included in 'L'Échange symbolique et la mort' (1976) and revisited in Marcello Faletra's 2015 book 'Graffiti. Poetiche della rivolta.' Parise later lamented the loss of graffiti's 'popular virginity' when writers exhibited at the 41st Venice Biennale in 1984, calling for a 'museification' of early works. The article by Egidio Emiliano Bianco argues that Parise's text remains a 'small but solid intellectual fortress' against media-driven misconceptions.