Entre la luz y el agua fresca
Reaching out to remote communities around the world to engage them in participatory muralism is one of our passions. This time, we surprised the children of a primary school in a tiny village in the middle of the Pampas region in Argentina.
Patricio, our artistic director, had spent a lot of time in a nearby farm through his formative years. He spent many long days there, working on horseback, gaining some of the physicality he would later need for painting huge murals. Patricio wanted to acknowledge the legacy of a local gaucho, Don Perez – the man who, without knowing it, facilitated his journey to transforming urban walls across the world.
´We situated ourselves in the school, where we ran two days of creative workshops with the children and young people who travel there from the surrounding farms. Together we explored ideas for the mural, and eventually settled on one: wall scrapers, with the names of students past and present written on it leaves that frame the main image. The names of teachers and school staff were also added, to reflect the whole community. The result is a mural that not only celebrates the people who keep the space alive today but remembers and makes visible those who came before´ - he said. At first glance, it seems like the remote village is waiting for something to happen, the scraper poised to begin the work of developing. But look again – here is a thriving, close-knit community, with a true sense of belonging and a clear understanding of their past and future.
The image was built on to two existing wall features: three little windows at the top of the wall and a bench for students. The windows have been transformed into the teatrical lights, with colour that spills out of them also giving the impression of light or water sources, while the bench has become a fountain. As the scraper reaches the top of the image, the leaves detach into space, floating across the landscape.
Patricio interviewed by InfoPico (in Spanish)
A Student shows us how to Fresh water comes down and around the bench
Our Inspiration: Elso Perez and his accomplice, el ruso Verloche on the left, de los pagos de Trebolares
Project Initiated and funded by Artmongers
