Milan continues to celebrate the unforgettable Ornella Vanoni and does so with a new and extraordinary artistic tribute that fits into the beating heart of the city: a mural dedicated to her inaugurated on the occasion of the Milan Beauty Week and is located on the wall of the building located in via Melchiorre Gioia 1, in piazza Alvar Aalto and a few steps from piazza Gae Aulenti.
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The visual homage between the record covers
The work, entitled Flashback and signed by the famous American conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, is promoted by the Bolton group through the Collistar brand. It is a truly monumental double-sided mural that extends over 850 square meters and will remain visible until August 2027. The installation combines the languages of advertising and fine arts, showing the portrait of the Milanese singer on one facade.
Looking at the work closely, we discover that the dress worn by the artist is composed of a refined digital collage that collects the covers of her music records, transforming them into the very texture of the fabric. In the background, three key words clearly stand out that define its essence: free, irreverent and elegant. The objective is to transform public space into a place of meeting and dialogue, restoring collective identity and memory to the places lived in on a daily basis. Alessia Cappello, councilor for economic development and labor policies of the Municipality of Milan, defined the work as a precious gift capable of giving back to the community the face and spirit of a profoundly contemporary and authentic woman.
Many tributes to Vanoni, from the flowerbed to the birthday single
This visual tribute is part of a broader and more intense process of commemoration that the city of Milan has strongly desired to honor the memory of its musical icon, who passed away on 21 November 2025. The installation in fact anticipates by a few days the official announcement of Ornella Vanoni’s registration at the Famedio in Milan, scheduled for next 2 November, a solemn recognition reserved for the most illustrious personalities linked to the city.
This tribute joins other symbolic initiatives already welcomed by the Milanese, such as the inauguration of the plaque dedicated to her in the flowerbed of Largo Greppi, right in front of the Piccolo Teatro Strehler, the place that had marked the very first steps of her extraordinary artistic career. The density of these memories is also inevitably intertwined with the profound human and artistic bond with Gino Paoli, whose death last March left an unbridgeable void in the panorama of Italian authorial music.
Precisely on the night between the birthdays of the two artists, respectively born on 22 and 23 September, will see the publication of the last unreleased song entitled When I see you againoriginally conceived as a duet but transformed by Paolo Fresu’s trumpet into an intense musical dialogue that passes through absence. Through these initiatives, from Piazza Gae Aulenti to the places of theatrical culture, Milan demonstrates its desire to keep alive the voice and soul of an artist who has made her independence an eternal manifesto.
