Sara Gomez Arms |
Kalia (West Bank) (EFE).- On the occasion of Earth Day, a dozen urban artists, most of them Latinos, decorate some abandoned barracks at the foot of the Dead Sea with their murals, works that seek to raise awareness about the need to care for the environment and protect the sea which is disappearing at the alarming rate of one meter per year.
The clearest message is that of the Paraguayan Oz Montaina, whose mural is a dynamic map that shows the progressive reduction of the coastal limits of the saltiest sea on the planet, with indigo blue where there is still water and in different shades of red the spaces where before there was sea and now only desert remains.
“I wanted to do something that would draw attention to the problem that we are experiencing here, that the serious environmental problem that exists here would be appreciated at a single glance,” the Paraguayan told EFE about his work in this project promoted by the organization “Artists 4 Israel” on the occasion of Earth Day that is commemorated today.
raise awareness with art
To raise awareness but also to bring the best of current urban art to Israel, the organization has invited ten urban artists from Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Portugal, Paraguay, Greece, South Africa, South Korea or the US, to paint the walls of an old military barracks in Jordan, some fifty buildings abandoned in 1967 when Israel occupied the entire West Bank after the Six-Day War, including the northern part of the Dead Sea where the Jews installed the Kalia kibbutz in that area controlled today by Israel.
“The idea of this project is to raise awareness about the situation of the Dead Sea and the environmental degradation that occurs here. We hope that we can inspire people to take action on what is happening to reclaim the environmental beauty of the Dead Sea and the surrounding desert,” explained Artists 4 Israel founder Craig Dershowitz.
In fact, this unique natural area in the world, the lowest place on the planet at 450 meters below sea level, cuts its coastline at the rate of one meter per year, at serious risk of disappearance, while 98% of its natural shoreline is inaccessible because of the more than 7,000 sinkholes that surround the Dead Sea.
For this awareness work, Dershowitz selected the best urban artists of the moment, with a broad representation of Latin Americans and Spanish-speakers, since “now they are the ones who represent the most modern and new in street art and the world of graffiti.”
“They have very different styles, but these artists are the best example of what is trending right now in urban murals,” he said.
Like the Argentine artist Cobra, who has decided to bring to his work “a bit of South America” and the green and humid nature of his native Santa Fe, a total contrast with the arid and earthy landscape of the Negev desert that surrounds the Dead Sea. .
“I am painting a child living among the flowers, in front of a landscape like the Dead Sea, which is dying in some way, to bring a bit of color and raise awareness about the importance of conserving natural habitats”, says the Argentine.
The child’s face on her mural is inspired by her son’s, a message about the importance of preserving the environment for future generations.
abstraction and figuration
Halfway between geometric abstraction and figuration, the Spanish Iker Muro, from Bilbao, repeats his experience with Artists 4 Israel with a huge mural, into which drawings of plants, marine resources or flowers slip, also to give life and color to that landscape that is at risk of extinction.
“My work is quite abstract, based on freestyle, intuition and improvisation, so I never know for sure how the mural will end. But being here, I wanted to do something a little more drawn with natural motifs”, he points out.
The Puerto Rican Celso, whose work focuses on mosaics, captured with colored tiles a gazelle typical of the Negev fauna; while the Greek Kleomenis painted several of these animals at the foot of a mighty Dead Sea that no longer exists, and that in one way or another has been the inspiration for all the invited artists.
The Mexican-American James Haunt, became immersed in the stories recounted by the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known biblical texts, found in that area, which “seem like science fiction”, for which his mural adopts comic strip forms. that theme but is inspired by the Old Testament.
All this to form a “great open-air art gallery” as the 50 buildings of this former Jordanian military barracks are painted, which will form “the largest urban art project in the entire Middle East”, according to the plan of Artists 4 Israel.