IF YOU DON’T BUY THIS MAGAZINE, WE WILL KILL GIORGIO QUARZO GUARASCIO
Credits
Photography by Jacopo BenassiCreative direction by Alessandro Scolaro
Words by Nicolò Michielin
This photograph, captured one afternoon in Rome by the revolutionary photographer and artist Jacopo Benassi, pays homage to a cover of 1977 from Re Nudo, which was Italy’s leading countercultural magazine.
Founded in 1970 by Andrea Valcarenghi, it emerged as the voice of the Italian beat movement. In an era when people’s daily lives were divided into eight hours of work, eight hours of leisure, and eight hours of sleep, most magazines focused on just one aspect of this framework. Publications like Lotta Continua concentrated on the working hours and political struggle, while others, such as High Times, addressed leisure time exclusively.
The true revolution of Re Nudo lay in its ability to embrace both dimensions, exploring not only the realities of working life but also the realms of creative expression and leisure.
The magazine boasted contributions from prominent figures in both international and Italian cultural scenes, includingJack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Franco Battiato, Giorgio Gaber, and even Frank Zappa.
This created a bridge between beat culture, music, and social engagement, making Re Nudo a reference point for a generation seeking authentic and unconventional expressions of reality.
In this work by Benassi, we have chosen to feature Giorgio Quarzo Guarascio, better known as Tutti Fenomeni.
He represents one of the few figures worthy of the title of singer-songwriter. Guarascio embodies more of a literary or poetic essence, navigating the musical landscape of his generation.
He emerged from the Roman trap scene at the classical high school Virgilio, later transitioning to a more intellectual indie sound—an indie marked by Nicolò Contessa, the frontman of I Cani and the Midas touch of the Italian independent music scene. Contessa selected Guarascio as his protégé, initiating a fruitful artistic collaboration.
Similarly, the author of “A Roma va così” captivated filmmaker Pietro Castellitto, who cast Guarascio as a co-protagonist in Enea, a film presented last year at the Venice Film Festival, set to the notes of “Maledetta Primavera.”
Castellitto expressed how he was struck by Giorgio not just as an artist but as a person, emblematic of a certain type of counterculture, and by the way he spoke—with the eloquence of a literate, akin to a poet of the past, navigating the intersections of “prostitutes and LSD” on the nights of the Eternal City.
Because Giorgio Quarzo Guarascio is a poet with a microphone in hand, STXDYOZ has invited him to write a poem about time.
Tempo perso è tempo guadagnato
La scelta più seduttiva è quella meno produttiva,
ecco perché i belli non pensano quasi mai alla morte.
La condizione umana è sempre la stessa: capita di scomparire..
Il tempo è come un killer!
Importante è fare testamento,
anche senza notaio
possibilmente in duplice copia,
scritto a mano,
nascosto ma trovabile.
I vecchi insegneranno il tempo ai bambini,
un patrimonio che non si trova nei libri,
che non si proietta sugli schermi.
E poi…
sublimare le erezioni notturne con delle poesie
e gli impulsi suicidi con delle erezioni.
Time lost is time gained
The most seductive choice is the least productive,
which is why the good-looking almost never think about death.
The human condition is always the same:
it happens to disappear….
Time is like a killer!
It is important to make a will,
even without a notary
possibly in duplicate,
handwritten,
hidden but findable.
Old people will teach children about time,
a legacy not to be found in books,
not projected on screens.
And then…
sublimate nocturnal erections with poems
and suicidal impulses with erections.