Oscar Di Biase (49) is a radio producer and works as an administrative clerk. But a few years ago he began to transcend how the artist who portrays national rock figures with mosaics in the murals that adorn some walls of Buenos Aires.
His latest work is a mural dedicated to Martín Carrizothe great drummer of Gustavo Cerati, ANIMAL and Indio Solari who passed away on 11 January of this year later a long fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (LA A).
The piece, three meters long by two meters high – black and white mosaic tiles with glass and mirror details-, was walled up in one of the walls of El Galpón de Ortúzar, a cultural center located in the Plaza 25 de Agosto of that neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
Somehow, Carrizo is now close to his idol, Gustavo Cerati, ever since Five years ago Di Biase created the mural “Vuelta por el Universo” in that same square.in memory of Soda Stereo.
“It all started in 2021, in a pandemic. I knew that Martín was a Cerati fan. And at home I had a replica of the painting of the first mural I did of Gustavo. So I wrote to ‘Caramelito’ – the former conductor Cecilia Carrizo, the drummer’s sister – and told her that I wanted to give the painting to Martín because of the bad times he was going through “, says Oscar, who has grown up. in Glew but now lives in San Telmo.
“Earlier this year, at the presentation of the documentary on Martín (stroking the shot), I wrote to Cecilia and asked her if she liked the idea of doing a mural and if she would authorize me. Y in April we started modeling it”, He adds on how the work was conceived.
Di Biase explains that the name of the mural, “Martino’s eyes”he almost took it for granted: when he looked at which image to use as a guide for his work, Cecilia chose one in particular for the mischievous look her brother had.
“And when I started working on the first part of the mural, without realizing it I started with the eyesOsky says, still incredulous. “The work gave the name itself,” he says.
The rock fan who dreams of being Charly
Say prejudice he discovered his vocation as an artist as an adult. Or, according to him, as a muralist, because he says that “artist” is too big for him. Ten years passed when he stopped doing the radio show he was doing as a hobby with his friends and he enrolled in a vitreaux course at the San Martino Cultural Center.
There he met Professor Andres Jacob, who became his mentor. He started learning this trade in his he Barracas workshop until one day he saw that he had a painting made with mosaics. And he decided to perfect himself in that technique.
The first approach of this art with rock, another great passion of his, was through Lilian Clark and Laura Cerati, to whom he gave a painting by Gustavo when the musician was already in a coma at the ALCLA clinic.
“I’ve been listening to rock since ’82, when I was 9 years old. Music is important to me and I think of all people. Everything I do is related to rock. My way of thanking rock is through murals ”, explains Di Biase, who at 18 had a rock band with his friends from Glew, but realized immediately: “I can’t even ring the bell”.
“Then the idea of the Cerati mural was born at the San Roque school, where Gustavo studied. We premiered it on August 11, 2012, “he says.
Di Biase’s first mural would not be Cerati’s last. In 2018, in the same square where it can be seen “Martino’s eyes” opened “Around the Universe” in honor of him and his fans.
Today, although his mosaics continue to multiply, “the muralist of rock” renounce the nickname of artist because “I didn’t study fine arts, so I think I’m stealing,” he confesses.
“There’s a mambo of mine over there. But I’m a muralist ”, she clarifies. His signature can be read “Diamond of the soul”, work dedicated to “Flaco” Spinetta at the Villa Urquiza station of the Miter trainand in “La hija del rock”, a portrait of Adriana “La Gata” Varela in a corner of Avellaneda.
His next big goal is leave Charly García engraved on a wall. “I have it in my sights. I’m a number one fan of Charly. I have one pending Sui generis at the Dámaso Centeno School, where they met Nito (Mestre). I don’t lose hope. If it’s not there, it’ll be somewhere else, “he predicts.
Source: Clarin
