Artist: Francesco “PISKV” Persichella
Sport: Basketball – Street Art
Client: Red Bull
Location: Rome, Italy
Red Bull Half Court is a unique 3on3 basketball streetball tournament that will tip off in more than 20 countries across the world leading into the September world final in Russia.
Streetball is about art, the individual and a lifestyle expressed not only by the skills, fashion and music of the ballers, but also by the courts where they spend every waking moment.
This summer new memorable ones will arise in countries around the world and, ahead of the tournament, the five icons will get to see how their personal dream courts might look like thanks to the talented PISKV.
The artist, born in Puglia but Roman by adoption, has already designed and drawn a playground in the Italian capital.
I have been called by Red Bull to tell the story behind the creation of the playgrounds since PISKV designed them in his atelier.
At first he studied the locations, watching them on google maps on a large scale and trying to find peculiar lines in the environment to recall and exalt them. Once he found this peculiarities he tried to mix them with the local culture starting with raw sketches on paper.
When the sketches began to take shape he moved to his graphic tablet to refine them.
Below all the photos of the process.
The 2021 Red Bull Half Court season has been given a colourful launch this year with five streetball icons revealing how their personal dream court would look like and renowned Italian street artist PISKV interpreting their vision.
Dušan Bulut of Serbia – widely recognised as the best 3×3 player ever – revealed: “It would be a street court, because I am used to playing in an environment like that. But I like water and sun – and I also like rooftops. So it’s a street court transplanted to the top of a building that is next to the Mediterranean. Wood for the floor, because I think basketball is best on wood – but if I could choose some colours, maybe concrete grey, and I’ve always liked the dark black of the streets. While the court has a street vibe, there’s also a feeling of luxury because on top of a building there can probably be only a few of us playing. I can imagine myself there.”
Canadian Joey “King Handles” Haywood declared: “I’d like to see a really unique court here in Vancouver – one with a street vibe like graffiti – to attract younger kids to play and, you know, mom, dad, whoever. Especially at a place that’s a high traffic area, really in the city, with a lot of cars and people going by. Having my name or my logo on the floor would be cool, and my nickname is King Handles, so there could be a crown. I’d want three different quotes on the sidelines and baseline; ‘Believe’, ‘Stay Strong’ and ‘Love the Game’ because in basketball you have to do those things – you need to believe in yourself.”
German Gudde added: “To give back to the playground culture where I came up, I definitely would put it in Germany, maybe Cologne so the next generation – or even the next and the next – could have something I never had. The court surface is black, the lines are orange and I would add target symbols between the three-point line and half court. Shooting a basket from those targets would be worth four points. I don’t want a metal fence because of the name ‘the cage’. I always felt caged playing organised indoor basketball and, for me, playground basketball is about freedom and expressing who you are as a player.”
Hong Kong’s Li Tsz Kwan, the 2019 Red Bull Reign 2019 silver medallist, said: “My dream court would be outdoors, with big, contrasting colors like red, orange, purple and white to bring out the energy of the game. It would be great to have some neon light decorations to give it a different vibe at nighttime. And there would be inspirational quotes painted in the court. One of my top three courts in the world is the urban Kai Yip basketball court here in Hong Kong, and its design includes inspirational quotes that resonate with locals – I really like that”
College basketball star and Internet sensation Jamad Fiin (US/Somalia) enthused: “My court would be in Africa, probably in Mombasa, Kenya. It’s a beautiful city. The court is in the middle of an open-air market, where there are clothing stores and older ladies selling food, and a bunch of little kids running around. It would be painted with an African theme, so red sand, black silhouettes of trees and probably elephants or giraffes – like a wild place, an African zoo. Around the court would be groups of girls, hugging arm-to-arm, having fun and playing basketball. Some with a scarf and some without.”
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