Oreste Fernando Nannetti (born in Rome December 31, 1927 - dead in Volterra November 24, 1994) was an inmate of the asylum of Volterra.
He often referred to himself as NOF4 (first letters of his name and 4, his id number in the asylum).
He was born without a father (on documents he had, as father name, "N.N." - In latin, "Nomen Nescio" unknown name).
His mother abandoned him in an orphanage when he was seven and in 1948 he was on trial for outrage to a policeman and during the trial he plead for insanity.
After this moment he spent his whole life in several insane asylums. In 1958 he was interned in the Volterra asylum where he lived up to his dead in 1994.
In the courtyard of the Ferri pavillon he drawn on the wall of the building a huge graffiti using the buckle of his vest. This graffiti was a symbolic story of his life with several notes of science-fiction. It is considered one of the most important "brut art" work ever done.
Most of the graffiti was removed and now it is in a museum in Volterra.
The asylum is totally abandoned but some parts of the graffiti are still in place, slowly fading in rain and time.
I took several pictures of the abandoned Volterra asylum but here you will find the five ones I took in 2016 with a Fuji Instax camera.
A small part of NOF4 graffiti on the courtyard wall
The first floor
The first floor
The first floor
A bench in the courtyard
NOF4
Published:

NOF4

Five insta pictures of the abandone psychiatric hospital in Volterra. The "Ferri" buildind where NOF4 did his graffiti work.

Published:

Creative Fields