La Rossa draws from the dense mythology and religious history of Bologna to construct a visual satire of America’s accelerating fascism.

Bologna is a city layered with symbol: medieval towers that once signaled family power, endless porticoes that frame ritual movement, and churches whose architecture stages belief as spectacle. It is also home to University of Bologna — the oldest university in the Western world — where doctrine and dissent have coexisted for nearly a millennium. Sacred authority and intellectual inquiry share the same streets.

In La Rosa, I borrow from this visual and theological inheritance, martyrdom  and iconography, and redirect it toward the contemporary American political theater.

The work is satirical, but the satire is surgical. Just as religious imagery once consolidated authority through awe and repetition, today’s American fascist movement constructs its own mythic language of grievance as martyrdom, spectacle as salvation, the leader as anointed figure. By staging these parallels within the architectural and symbolic vocabulary of Bologna, I create a transatlantic mirror. The Old World language of sanctity is used to expose the New World performance of authoritarianism.

The result is not parody for its own sake. It is an inquiry into how myth hardens into doctrine, how beauty disguises coercion, and how spectacle replaces civic responsibility. In a city where belief has been codified in stone for centuries, La Rossa asks what new cathedrals of power are being built in the United States and who is kneeling before them.

l’uscita da Santo Domenico Exiting Saint Domenic Bologna

Saint Dominic is the patron saint of the innocent  who are falsely accused.

Ironically 20 years after his death the Dominican Order played a key role in the Inquisition, which was created to investigate and prosecute non believers. , the monks investigated, interrogated and punished those who disagreed with their societal views. The  executions were carried out by the police.

Saint Sebastian was tied to a column and shot with arrows, though this did not kill him. He survived to preach his beliefs again.  Sebastian is the patron saint of the police and plagues.

Piazza Santo Stefano, Bologna

Santo Stefano (Stephan) was the first believer to be murdered by an angry citizens rebellion. He was stoned to death. Contrary to popular belief Saint Stephen was not a miller.

Dog walker cleanup, Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, November 2024

Spiritual Cleansing, Bologna, November 2025

How to Spot a Fascist bookmarked with an aroncione, Bologna, 2025

Heartless, Bologna 2025

Grasso-Ho bisogno della cassa dritta, Bologna, November 2025