It's the first (and original) use of the Stencil. Viggiano is the village of the south of Italy that surmounts the "Centro Oil". The Centro Oil is an Oil production center that makes up to 15% of the energy needs in petrol for the whole of Italy. The Val D'Agri valley has the largest in-land oil reserve of the whole of western Europe. It produces many riches for the exploiting private/central government entities but has little positive repercussions (and lots of negatives) for the region itself. The black droppings represent the oil. The fact that the Madonna Nera is the most renowned continental Italy's black virgin was for me a determining reason to couple it with the concept of "black gold" as a metaphor to depict the oil driven situation of the post in contrast with the historical and cultural religious tradition of the Black Madonna.

A directly related piece is "Eni's Maid" that takes another angle on the same subject of confronting tradition with the modern situation from the perspective of the Briganti, historical socio-political stance of local population resistance to outer domination that did not traduce into more wellbeing for the local people. These two pieces are similar in the message their convey and in the visual technique and composition style.

This is the first use of the stencil and version I made of the "Madonna Nera" of Viggiano. There are other subsequent versions ranging from applying the stencil unto a white canvas to more elaborate versions with various backgrounds. For me, the sole fact of representing the icon in a stencil street art style is already a message by itself. Mixing modernity and tradition if the obvious lecture but this icon serves to represent other purposes and messages too. You can find down below a slideshow directing you to the other versions.