Issue and Opposition: Vatican City’s Decorum Squad failed miserably in keeping the city clean from unsightly graffiti on the walls and trash on the streets. The citizens’ concerns did not yield any resolution. Street artist Mauro Pallotta, who signs his name as Maupal, used artivism to protest against the Decorum Squad’s inaction against “illegal urban decorations” that made the city look ugly to the residents and tourists.
Dilemma Action: Maupal painted a life-size portrait of the Pope on the wall. In the painting, Pope was seen creating graffiti on the wall. The graffiti in question was a tic-tac-toe matrix. However, instead of zeros, it was populated with round-shaped peace signs. The painting showed Pope Francis as a graffiti artist drawing peace signs on the tic
A larger-than-life mural showing Pope Francis as a sneaky graffiti artist painting peace signs on a wall near the Vatican has been taken down by Rome’s “decorum cops” just hours after it went up. The mural showed the Pope on a step ladder playing a game of tic-tac-toe by painting circular peace signs in place of zeros.
Outcome: The Decorum Squad arrived at the scene soon after and with the help of the Vatican City’s sanitation workers deleted the mural. The sanitation workers use high-pressure water jets to erase the artwork. This was highly criticized by the local media and many wondered why the sanitation department and the Decorum squad did not show similar levels of efficiency in erasing graffiti from the city walls.