The Reclaimed Pink Triangle: Ciotola Art of Remembrance and Resistance
The work by Maestro Raffaele Ciotola, founder of STOP HOMOPH ART, is a powerful artistic manifesto that unites historical memory and activism.
The artist portrays himself in clothing that evokes the uniforms of Nazi prisoners, paying homage to the tens of thousands of homosexual victims persecuted and murdered during Nazism. The pink triangle, a symbol of oppression, is placed over his heart and replicated powerfully in the background, transforming into a visible icon of pride and resistance for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Ciotola does not merely commemorate; he becomes the living voice for a history silenced for too long, using art as a trenchant tool to denounce hatred and promote tolerance. The image is a historical warning and an essential call to action for the present day.
STOP HOMOPH ART | ARTISTIC MOVEMENT
"FUCK YOU"
"FUCK YOU" is a response born from unjust suffering, from awareness, and from a living memory. It emerges within the “STOP HOMOPH ART” movement as a clear and undeniable voice against homophobia and its historical roots. This is a work that looks violence in the eye without backing down, choosing to speak the language of determination—not blind anger.
The central gesture—a raised thumb painted with the rainbow flag—is anything but banal. It is not a sterile provocation, but a symbol of survival, of affirmed identity, of the right to exist. It is the queer body revealed without fear, declaring: “We are here, and we are no longer afraid.”
Perhaps the most powerful detail is the one that seems simplest: a swastika hanging from the wrist like a powerless charm. In this symbolic demotion there is no lightness—only memory transformed. That emblem, which marked the death and humiliation of at least 50,000 LGBTQ+ people during the Nazi regime, is shown today not to provoke, but to declare that it no longer holds power—that history will not be forgotten, but neither will it be passively accepted.
In FUCK YOU, the indifference to that symbol is not superficiality—it is deep awareness. It is the power of memory shaking off fear and restoring dignity to those who were silenced.
This is not a work that asks to be liked.
It is a work that demands to be seen, understood, remembered.
Because to remember is already to act.
And here, art is full, deliberate action.
It is a work that demands to be seen, understood, remembered.
Because to remember is already to act.
And here, art is full, deliberate action.