GUESTS

Alberto Garcia

Producer of “Madrid graffiti: origen”, is a producer associated with academic and cultural research projects related to contemporary visual culture and documentary practices. Member of the COMEIN research group at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Ateneo

Ateneo is a freestyle organization founded in April 2023 in Rome, which has followed up in the capital on the “walls” phenomenon that has spread throughout Italy. These are meeting places where freestyle rap battles are held weekly, with the aim of introducing new kids to the discipline and training them for major national contests. The host and organizer is Emanuele Vagli, born in ’99, supported by JJ. The University is part of a broader network of Roman hip hop groups: it is among the Roman associations that have collaborated to create the Urban Vibes Block Party, events that combine freestyle, graffiti, breakdancing, and live rap.

Florian Gaag 

Director of “Wholetrain”, born in Germany in 1971. Director and screenwriter, his main source of inspiration for his film work is his personal history in writing culture. Gaag began writing graffiti in 1984 and has followed that culture ever since. This visceral connection to the world of graffiti would later profoundly shape his entire career.

Francesco Kento Carlo 

Francesco “Kento” Carlo is a rapper and writer from Reggio Calabria, with a resume of more than 1,000 concerts in every corner of Italy and abroad. He has been holding writing workshops in juvenile prisons, schools, and rehabilitation communities for more than 10 years. He was awarded by ANPI – Partisans Association and Peppino Impastato Memory House. His latest book “BARRE – Rap, Dreams and Secrets in a Juvenile Prison” was released in 2021 by Minimum Fax.

Francisco Reyes 

Director of “Madrid Graffiti: origen”, but also researcher and cultural programmer specializing in urban culture, graffiti and contemporary visual narratives. Director of the television program Ritmo Urbano and member of the COMEIN research group at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Giuseppe Nexus Gatti

He is a researcher and professor of film and media studies at the University of Turin, where he teaches “History of North American Cinema” and “Archives of Museology and Cinema”. His research focuses on North American and Italian media cultures, particularly their interaction with Hip Hop. He is the author of numerous academic essays on film and hip-hop studies and two monographs: Device. An Archaeology of Mind and Media (Roma TrE-Press, 2019) and Hip-Hop Street Map (Alegre, 2020). Known as b-boy “Nexus” (Urban Force Crew), he has been an active member of the Italian hip-hop scene for more than twenty-five years, also working as a director, performer, art educator and dance judge. He is the Italian co-representative of the European Hip Hop Studies Network.

Hube

Hube born in Rome in 1982, he is a multifaceted artist, active in the fields of rap music, writing and photography, and writing. Raised in Rome, he started as a writer in the crew “Savage Boys”. In the ‘90s he moved between graffiti, suburbs and rap culture. Active in the field of photography and street photography, he collaborated with the artist Lucamaleonte in the publishing project Colla 00139 (2023), documenting the most authentic and urban side of Rome. He has exhibited and put up for sale printed works and Polaroid objects, for example at Bertolami Fine Art

ORGH

He was born in Rome in 1983, where he attended the ’art institute’. In 1996 he began to approach Writing . 1999 was a year that brought about a complete change in his style, embracing 3D and starting with his crew to give a new boost to the graffiti scene in Rome by organizing complete and impactful themed murals for the user. In the same period he began to travel and participate in various jams and important events such as l’ Amazing Day and the Meeting of Styles as a writer, gaining an excellent position in the scene, and took part in several group shows and in 2015 his first solo exhibition in Rome “Animal Letters” .Over the years the style underwent several changes, as he abandoned 3d to return to his passion for 2d, based on wild style and taking up a semi-wildstyle. Over time he brought back the technique for realistic that he used on paper on walls with an excellent result by combining it as a siduamente with his “semi-wild” style lettering with the constant note of combining warm and cold colors and working a lot on the color gradation in the walls. He boasts important collaborations with great artists such as Mr Thoms, Etnik, Dater, Wany.

Simone Stritti Micozzi

Director of “Breghenens 2”, he was born artistically in October 1983 when Breaking became his passion and began his journey into Hip Hop culture. Over the years, he has specialized primarily in Hip Hop Dance and all the various disciplines of this culture, including Deejay; since 1994, he has specialized in Clubbin Hip Hop. Over the years he has collaborated with the greatest exponents of Italian Hip Hop culture and is part of Zulu Nation, Hip Hopera Foundation and the Groovin Brothers crew.

Urbis Next Gen

It is a Roman association founded in January 2025 from the collaboration of a group of young people, whose main objective is the redevelopment of abandoned spaces. With the creation of benches and waste bins from scratch, and with a constant cleaning of the Ponte Lungo skatepark, Urbis Next Gen carries out a project made of sustainability, culture, art, community and fun. It is therefore not a simple hip hop collective, but an association with a strong civic and social vocation, which uses urban culture as a tool for local regeneration. Urbis Next Gen’s base of operations is the same skatepark on Via Gela, the beating heart of the Roman hip hop scene and home of the University. At each block party, the guys from Urbis Next Gen open the day as early as 1:30 pm with the redevelopment of the park, preparing the physical space before the evening activities of freestyle, graffiti, beatboxing and breakdancing begin.

TUTORS

Daniela Cono 

Bgirl since 1998, and visual artist, she has developed a strong passion for anything related to video (post production, visual effects and motion graphics, videomapping, vjing), in connection with Hip Hop culture and body’s expressions. Graphic designer and motiongrapher for TV and theater productions, she is the vicepresident of TBB/TBG Global Family (Italian Chapter), and member of HipHoperaFoundation, with the aim of promoting cultural, artistic and social events and projects, and spreading their founding values ​​and principles. In 2015 she won “Cultura Futura,CreativiDigitali“, creating the experimental project See-Goal, in 2017 she co-founded Point2b, a dance and visual arts company. 

Noemi D’Orazio Queen J

Street dancer, active in the Roman scene with the Wild Up Crew. She has been involved in art and education for years through stand-up dance, specializing in children’s workshops.