Jorit

Jorit was born in Quarto on the northern perimeter of Naples. His father, Luigi Cerullo,{{sfn|Del Porto|2018}} was a Neapolitan and his mother, Jeannina,{{sfn|TG|2018}} was Dutch. After studying at the scientific lyceum Galileo Galilei in Naples, he attended the Naples Academy of Fine Arts,{{sfn|Guida|2016}} obtaining a first class degree.{{sfn|Maselli|2016}}

His interest in street art began when he was 13 years old. Jorit has defined his approach as one of picking out ordinary faces from the working class to embody famous people, in the style of Caravaggio. Thus, his depiction at {{ill|Forcella, Naples|it|Forcella (Napoli)}} of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples, draws on features of a 35-year-old friend who is a factory worker.{{sfn|De Rosa|2015}}

In the murals made by Jorit there are "hidden" writings, words and phrases that often expand the meaning of the works. They were collected for the first time by Vincenzo De Simone, a Neapolitan psychologist and photographer, as part of the "La gente di Napoli" photoproject.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

In 2023, Il Giornale estimated the typical value of a graffiti work by Jorit at {{currency|25000|EUR}}. Jorit earlier won a competition for funding from the Campania region at a value of {{currency|300000|EUR}}.{{cite Q|Q120791946|url-status=live|trans-title=Jorit, the graffiti artist funded by Campania who paints murals for Russian occupants}}

File:Yuri Gagarin by Jorit.jpg by Jorit, in Odintsovo]]

In August 2019, Jorit painted the face of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, on the facade of a twenty-story building in the district of Odintsovo, Russia. At the base of the mural is "СССР", the abbreviation for the official name of the Soviet Union in the Russian alphabet.{{Cite web|url=https://it.rbth.com/cultura/83218-jorit-il-bansky-italiano-approda|title=Jorit, il Bansky italiano approda in Russia: a Mosca un suo murales gigante dedicato a Gagarin|language=it|website=it.rbth.com|date=30 August 2019|access-date=2 September 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.2anews.it/cultura-ed-eventi/jorit-la-sua-arte-approda-in-russia-un-murale-dedicato-a-jurij-gagarin.html|website=2anews.it|title=Jorit, la sua arte approda in Russia: un murale dedicato a Jurij Gagarin|date=21 August 2019|access-date=2 September 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bonculture.it/news-comunicati/la-nuova-opera-di-jorit-e-in-russia-un-murale-dedicato-a-yuri-gagarin/|website=bonculture.it|title=La nuova opera di Jorit è in Russia: un murale dedicato a Yuri Gagarin|language=it|date=20 August 2019|access-date=2 September 2019|archive-date=1 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190901233008/https://www.bonculture.it/news-comunicati/la-nuova-opera-di-jorit-e-in-russia-un-murale-dedicato-a-yuri-gagarin/|url-status=dead}} It is the largest portrait of Gagarin in the world.{{Cite web|url=https://russkiymir.ru/en/news/261185/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230511124539/https://russkiymir.ru/en/news/261185/|url-status=dead|archive-date=11 May 2023|website=russkiymir.ru|title=AUTHOR OF LARGEST GAGARIN GRAFFITI VISITED STAR CITY|date=21 August 2019|access-date=30 November 2020}}

On 22 February 2021, he painted the face of {{ill|Valerio Verbano|it}} on the facade of a building in Rome. Verbano was an Italian communist militant, killed in 1980 in an ambush by three fascists who had entered his home.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ansa.it/sito/notizie/cronaca/2021/02/19/valerio-verbano-a-roma-un-gigantesco-murale-firmato-jorit_056823f1-b360-4002-ab7b-32903e7ede15.html|title=Valerio Verbano: a Roma un gigantesco murale firmato Jorit|language=it|date=2021-02-19|website=ansa.it}}

In Florence, Jorit published a mural depicting the young Antonio Gramsci in 2020. In the wall is Gramsci's words: "Even when all is or seems lost, one must quietly set to work again, starting from the beginning ... The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old dies and the new cannot be born".https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/contemporary-art/here-s-jorit-s-new-mural-a-213-square-meter-gramsci-at-florence{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} -s-housing-projects

File:Bethlehem wall graffiti Ahed Tamimi by Jorit Agoch and others.jpeg by Jorit in collaboration with two other artists]]

Jorit and another artist, Salvatore Tukios, were detained for three days after painting a mural depicting a Palestinian adolescent activist, Ahed Tamimi, who had become an iconic figure among Palestinians after slapping the face of an Israeli soldier outside her home in the West Bank village of Nabi Salih. The mural – whose completion was scheduled to coincide with Tamimi's release from an 8-month prison sentence – was set on the Bethlehem side of Israel's Separation Barrier.{{sfn|Ma'an|2018}}{{sfn|Reuters|2018}} Upon their return to Naples on 30 July, their families, waiting at the airport, asked that no photos be taken, as they wished to remain anonymous.{{sfn|La Stampa|2018}}{{Cite web|title=Israele, rilasciati Jorit e Salvatore|url=https://www.ilroma.net/news/cronaca/israele-rilasciati-jorit-e-salvatore|language=it|access-date=2021-04-08|website=Roma}}

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Jorit stated that Italy should have been supporting the Russian-backed separatists of the Donbas region in Ukraine since 2014.{{Cite web |author=Redazione online |date=2023-07-13 |title=Jorit, un murale a Mariupol su un palazzo colpito dai russi. E si schiera dalla parte di Mosca |url=https://www.corriere.it/esteri/23_luglio_13/jorit-murale-mariupol-si-schiera-parte-russi-3059a2d6-21a0-11ee-9198-c4684ec34a4c.shtml |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=Corriere della Sera |language=it-IT |quote=The resistance that we should have supported is that of the people of the Donbas, who have been fighting for eight years to get rid of a regime, the Kyiv regime, that now has nothing democratic about it.}}{{Cite web |date=2023-07-14 |title=Hanno tutti ragione {{!}} Un capolavoro di vergogna, lo street artist italiano che decora i palazzi sventrati da Putin |url=https://www.repubblica.it/politica/2023/07/14/news/hanno_tutti_ragione_newsletter_cappellini_jorit_mariupol-407748753/ |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=la Repubblica |language=it}}

Jorit made a mural in Naples of Fyodor Dostoevsky, in whose eye is a child in the colours of the Russia-controlled Donetsk People's Republic. He argued that the issue had to be seen from 2014, and that the peoples of the Donbas had self-determined through two referendums, and that children of the two republics had been killed by the Ukrainian army for eight years.{{Cite web |url=https://www.la7.it/piazzapulita/video/jorit-dostoevskij-e-putin-08-04-2022-433338|title=Jorit, Dostoevskij e Putin|language=it|website=la7.it}} His street art was mentioned by Russian president Vladimir Putin during the invasion of Ukraine to illustrate his view that it would be impossible to obliviate Russian culture.{{Cite web |title=Italian street artist paints mural in support of Donbass children in Mariupol |url=https://tass.com/society/1646709 |access-date=2023-07-15 |website=TASS}}

Jorit described a mural of a young girl that he made in July 2023 on a bombed-out building in occupied Mariupol (after a siege that the Red Cross called "apocalyptic"), as seeking to present a narrative of the bombing of the city and its inhabitants by "NATO missiles". He also said the mural was "a living little girl from Donbas who spent her first years in Mariupol surrounded by war". Australian photographer Helen Whittle protested that the mural is based on a photo of her daughter and unauthorized.{{cite web | author=Redazione online | title=Perché si parla del murale di Jorit a Mariupol | website=Corriere del Ticino | date=2023-07-15 | url=https://www.cdt.ch/news/mondo/perche-si-parla-del-murale-di-jorit-a-mariupol-322685 | language=it | access-date=2023-07-18}} Jorit later said he had come across the photo by searching on Google for "pigtails", and he had redrawn the shirt and the pigtails. Jorit's mural was criticised on the basis that the bombs that killed children in Mariupol were Russian, and that the Mariupol hospital airstrike was attributed to Russian forces.{{Cite news |last=Tondo |first=Lorenzo |date=2023-07-19 |title=Photographer criticises use of image in Italian artist's pro-Russia mural |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/19/photographer-criticises-use-of-image-in-italian-artists-pro-russia-mural |access-date=2023-07-19 |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720144028/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/19/photographer-criticises-use-of-image-in-italian-artists-pro-russia-mural|archive-date=2023-07-20|issn=0261-3077}} Critics also questioned the appropriateness of Jorit's mural after Russian forces had previously removed a mural by Sasha Korban in Mariupol that depicted a Ukrainian girl who lost her leg and her mother in an artillery rocket attack by pro-Russian separatist forces in 2015.{{cite Q|Q120837341|trans-title=Pistoletto's flames and Jorit's bombs|url-status=live}}

Jorit was nominated by Michelina Manzillo, Knight of the Italian Republic, for the 2023 Wolf Prize.{{cite news|first=Mirella |last=Armiero|url=https://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/napoli/arte_e_cultura/22_dicembre_06/jorit-lizza-il-wolf-prize-2023-25fc2c08-7586-11ed-8d6f-b5e6342919e5.shtml|title=Jorit in lizza per il Wolf Prize 2023|language=it|work=Corriere del Mezzogiorno|date=6 December 2022|access-date=16 July 2023}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|35em}}

• {{Cite news|title=Betlemme, rilasciati i due street artist italiani|language=it|publisher=TgCom24|url=http://www.tgcom24.mediaset.it/mondo/betlemme-rilasciati-i-due-street-artist-italiani_3155065-201802a.shtml|date=29 July 2018|ref={{harvid|TG|2018}}}}
• {{Cite news|title=Liberato Jorit, lo street artist Napolitano arrestato a Betlemme|language=it|last=Del Porto|first=Dario|newspaper=La Repubblica|url=http://napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2018/07/29/news/jorit-202929327/|date=30 July 2018}}
• {{Cite news|title=Graffiti artists detained for giant mural of al-Tamimi|agency=Ma'an News Agency|url=http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=780536|date=29 July 2018|ref={{harvid|Ma'an|2018}}}}
• {{Cite news|title=Fedez e San Gennaro nei graffiti iperrealisti di Jorit Agoch|language=it|last=Guida|first=Felicia|publisher=ArtSpecialDay.com|url=http://www.artspecialday.com/9art/2016/05/23/fedez-e-san-gennaro-nei-graffiti-iperrealisti-di-jorit-agoch/|date=23 May 2016}}
• {{Cite news|title=Intervista a Jorit Agoch. Il racconto del sogno americano|language=it|last=Maselli|first=Angela|publisher=Arts Life|url=http://www.artslife.com/2016/11/24/jorit-agoch-intervista-stati-uniti-murales-sogno-americano/|date=24 November 2016}}
• {{Cite news|title=Israel Arrests Italian Artists Who Painted a West Bank Mural of Ahed Tamimi|author=((Reuters))|newspaper=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-arrests-artists-painting-a-mural-of-ahed-tamimi-in-west-bank-1.6318113|date=28 July 2018}}
• {{Cite news|title=Il San Gennaro operaio di Jorit per far rinascere Forcella|last=De Rosa|first=Anna Laura|newspaper=La Repubblica|url=http://napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2015/09/16/news/il_san_gennaro_operaio_di_jorit_per_far_rinascere_forcella-122978158/|date=16 September 2015}}
• {{Cite news|title=Torna a casa Jorit Agoch, lo street artist arrestato a Betlemme|language=it|newspaper=La Stampa|url=http://www.lastampa.it/2018/07/30/italia/torna-a-casa-jorit-agoch-lo-street-artist-arrestato-a-betlemme-NOzPvAiWX9yI0F2OXLSgXN/pagina.html|date=30 July 2018|ref={{harvid|La Stampa|2018}}}}

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Category:1990 births

Category:Italian graffiti artists

Category:Italian muralists

Category:Living people

Category:Artists from Naples

Category:Italian people of Dutch descent