Tour de France, in the stage-tribute to Pantani
On the stretch of water in front of a public beach one can admire a floating bicycle made up of yellow buoys. On the playing field of the municipal field is a giant picture of Marco Pantani. Everything in Cesenatico today speaks of the Pirate (the last cyclist ever to win the two major stage races in the same summer) and in general of the Tour de France, which started here for the second stage of this 2024 edition and will remain on Italian soil until Tuesday afternoon (2 July 2024).
The two works were created by Simone Tribuiani, a native of the Romagna seaside resort just like Marco. A great sports enthusiast, Simone Tribuiani (aka ‘Tribu’) tried them all as a child, from football to baseball, but especially cycling in the G.S. Fausto Coppi, where Pantani, five years older than him, also raced. His art is inextricably linked to sport, as his graffiti on the Barbotto and Perticara climbs show. ‘Tribu’ draws everywhere, if the surface is not new but worn by everyday use or history, even better. Sportsmen have become his trademark. Cyclists such as Coppi, Bartali, Binda, Moser, Pantani of course, but also stills of NBA games and national football teams posing before the game, especially those of Spain ’82. The artist takes inspiration from the youthful imagery of his adolescence, it goes without saying that music as well as private TV are not forgotten. And then the cinema, dreaming of certain scenes from films that no one remembers anymore.
